I started to feel clear today about the need to start opening up.
Too many people are suffering too harshly to keep doing this, as much as I understand the need to do it carefully and thoughtfully (the tattoo and nail parlors and bowling alleys can wait a couple of weeks.)
I don’t really know how you balance the need to spare people this awful virus with the need for people to get back to work and feed their families, but kids need to be in school, and parents need to work. Those are basic human rights.
I’m willing to take some responsibility for myself, and for other people, I think I can keep myself safe and others safe from me. It’s just time to do it.
My friend Eve Marko, a compassionate Zen Master and teacher wrote on her blog that we have to open up around here. If the Buddhists are ready, I’m in.
“Honestly, I don’t want to be safe anymore,” Eve wrote. “Honestly, I feel that being safe, closing myself up at home and limiting my exposure, is a luxury I can’t afford—not if I want to be a conscious and aware member of the human race. Aware of what? Of being among those who can afford the shutdown because they can work from home or else don’t depend for income on a salary for location-based work.”
The doctors are eloquent in their plea for more time. They are just trying to save lives. But there are other voices out there, and they also need to be heard.
I feel the same way. I do want to be safe, but people are terrified of losing their income and depending on food from pantries to feed their kids. People are getting hungry and desperate. And angry.
I think we do have to think of the people whose suffering grows by the day, not just the people fighting the virus.
I wouldn’t want to be a governor these days, but the idea of opening up thoughtful and over the next month seems the right one to me.
I’m older and at risk, and I really don’t care to be the reason other people are suffering so much. The refugee families are going hungry, the Mansion residents live in fear, but like Eve, I don’t care to be safe while millions of other people begin to starve and lose their way of making a living.
I think every rational person will understand that it might take some time. But it’s time to open things up, at least around here and in the many parts of rural America that have already suffered enough, and where hospitals are laying people off because there are no patients to care for.
Tonight, Maria and I went to Saratoga with Zinnia to buy some groceries at Saratoga Apple and pick up some Jamaican take out. It was so great to get out and bring home this delicious meal.
We got some pansies, and some scones, and we also got some apples. The couple who cook for the Pop-up restaurant looked sad and frightened. They are trapped in a nightmare.
They’ve worked for years to get this business going, this restaurant was their dream, and tonight, there was hardly anyone around. They couldn’t hide their sadness and their fear.
I don’t think they can hold out for too much longer.
It’s time for life. I will take responsibility for keeping myself safe. I know some won’t do that, but there isn’t any way to live a life without some risk in this world. It’s time to start opening up.
Luckily, it isn’t up to you.
Or you…Bailey, we don’t do the nasty message thing here, if you have a thought, just say it, the snarky comments really don’t tell us a thing. You are welcome to disagree with me, but some recognizable thought is appreciated. Otherwise, you are just taking up space.
I received a much “snarkier” comment from you when you replied to something someone else said but tore into me for it. I thought snarky was what you did. You were very rude to Bailey, as she was more concisely rude to you.
Concise rudeness is an interesting notion..I’ll have to think on that..
Your pansies are beautiful! I am itching to start planting my gardens. ? Enjoy!
I, personally, will follow the advice of the scientists and physicians. After a recent trip to the grocery store where hardly anyone was wearing a mask or practicing safe social distance, it seems like it is all or nothing. As a person with a life career as a nurse, it was puzzling and disappointing. In the Midwest, we have not reached our peak yet. The only reason the curve is flattening in the East is because of the stay at home. Do we really want to regress if we open up too soon? I miss my “old” life but I can do this for my fellow man who might be more vulnerable. No one else should have to die to prove that social distancing works. I don’t want to see my children or grandchildren acquire this illness as I am sure you don’t either.
We’re staying home to keep a lot more people than just you safe! And the answer is to get a lot more cash in the hands of the people who need it to pay their rent and feed their kids instead of funneling it to Fortune 500 companies. That was the mistake in 2008, and it’s being repeated again. Saving national restaurant chains instead of Jean’s. The European countries got it right: pay companies to pay their employees until it’s safe to reopen. No layoffs.
I’m a teacher in northern New Jersey. Today, our school nurse sent an email reminding us that there are students with sick and dying family members. I’m grateful to be earning a paycheck still, but I don’t want to be forced to return to school before the experts agree it’s time. I’m grateful for Governors Cuomo and Murphy. Our government needs to do a better job of providing for its citizens in this time of desperate need.
I listen to your governor every day. He understands how hard this is and puts a lot of emphasis on “we” in that we stay home for others not ourselves. I believe there are plans to start opening up some parts of your state where there are less cases. Stay well. You do so much for your community.
I think everyone is getting to that place…otherwise we are letting fear rule our lives. How we live with this virus in the future remains to be seen but we can’t stay shutdown forever…
https://www.bedlamfarm.com/2020/04/25/cry-from-the-heartland-the-value-of-human-life-in-its-totality/
Wish I could agree with you. Financial ruin can be rebuilt. Death is final and with all the asymptomatic cases, I don’t think we should take chances. Love you anyway
Thanks I appreciate you also Barbara, love back..I don’t think it has to be one or the other…As I wrote, the choice isn’t between life and money but life and life…the people with the virus aren’t the only ones suffering terribly…
I agree with Governor Cuomo. Reopening will happen. But it has to be done with prudence and care.
Yes, the shutdown is hard on all of us. My daughter is an essential worker. She is exposed to hundreds of people everyday and is anxious. I haven’t been able to see her in more than a month.
Most who have lost work are collecting Unemployment with an additional $600.00 added to every check.
Many are doing better than the people actually working.
Yes, it’s hard when routines are disrupted and we can’t get our hair cut or nails done or work-out at the gym. But is dinner in a nice restaurant worth ourselves or loved ones ending up on a ventilator? Some of the people who have complained the loudest about shutdown have since died due to Covid.
Maybe this pandemic was meant to show us something in terms of what’s really important in life.
Some of what is considered “normal” isn’t normal at all and needs to change; the most obvious examples being “wet markets” in Asia, factory farms and high-speed slaughterhouses in the US. Not only do these places give birth to lethal viruses and deadly pathogens, but they also act as vectors for them.
(More than half the Covid cases in South Dakota are traced to the Smithfield pig slaughtering plant.)
In many ways Americans are spoiled. We want what we want when we want it.
But both nature and the planet are screaming for change.
Let us take this “pause” to think about where we are and where we are going.
I for one, fully support Governor Cuomo and the prudent way he is planning to reopen — even with protestors yelling outside his door. My daughter in fact, might want to change places with them.
It’s not easy to interact with hundreds of people everyday, knowing any one of them might inadvertantly kill you.
I think none of us are “safe” until we have a credible vaccine and that will take awhile. In the meantime I throw my hat into the Andrew Cuomo ring of a carefully crafted, science-based plan of systematic reopening. Staying at home is tough but we really have been doing it for just 56 days, 65 days in southern California . Americans are not used to being inconvenienced and certainly no one is enjoying the financial or social precipice we find ourselves on but this virus is a serious indiscriminate killer. The trick now is how to live a palatable lifestyle within the confines. Social Distancing is not hard to do in the country and smaller towns but difficult in urban areas. Staying home doesn’t put food on the table but it does protect people from The disease in the short term. I am grateful for the leadership that ai have seen and for the enormous effort by all of the people on the front lines. And I hope for a graduated and steady resolution.
Keep up your good work Jon! Cheers, Kate G-B
When faced with any pathogen the goal is herd immunity which occurs at 60-70% of the population either being vaccinated or having survived the illness caused by the pathogen.
Our current % of population acquiring the Corona disease – as far as we can tell – is 10-20%. So we have 40-60% of our population yet to immunize through acquiring the disease. Vaccinations are unlikely to contribute to herd immunity for 2 years if we factor in time to get everyone inoculated and if we are very lucky.
Fortunately this pathogen is milder than Ebola in its symptoms for most victims. However the Corona virus is extremely infectious and drags huge numbers of h people into its net, many of whom have vulnerabilities Ebola does not seem to reinfect; Corona virus may reinfect – TBD
If we could get to herd immunity FOR SURE within a couple of months that might warrant shutting things down as at present. BUT we have no date certain for establishing herd immunity for corona virus. That emerging awareness may change peoples’ calculations now that we are becoming aware of the costs as well as the benefits of our present course.
I am going to take precautions – mask, distancing, gloves and pay attention to recommendations by my governor and mayor in order to minimize loss of life and to make feasible the plight of hospitals and medical staff while we strive for herd immunity.
I regret deeply that our leadership brought so much death and illness and economic hardship unnecessarily to so many Americans including the kids and their families in the school you support.
The pandemic no one can help. The amount of agony in mourning >50,000 dead, stress of families of first responders, stress of most citizens, struggling to revive an economy in depression era trouble … these were the result of man made ineptness of epochal proportions. I am only starting to get angry about that and expect there will be plenty of time to be angry in the decade required to repair individual finances and our national economy.
Because the endpoint of this era – herd immunity – is unforseeable and because we have economic and medical considerations to balance I think our current strategy will likely shift to consider finances a bit more.
No one will feel safe again as we did. Some people will want to hold onto a certainty of safety. But through experience with cancer and other health issues I have had to come to reasonable terms with the reality that tomorrow is promised to no person. It is a hard concept to accept. It is not an excuse for leaders to commoditization or otherwise disrespect citizens.
Well, this is a complete 180!!!! The thing is this virus is not just about you or me. It’s about the human race which includes all Americans. I stay home 49% to protect myself and 51% to protect others in my community. I’m 66 and I’ve had a good life: if I die the world will not stop turning. But, if I deliberately disrespected the virus, contracted it, was asymptomatic and unwittingly gave it to someone else who did eventually die, I would not be able to live with myself. Perhaps other people don’t have that problem; but for me, I cannot morally go there. If I can help it, no one is going to die, or even get sick, because I spread the virus. As for the economy, I’m going to let the politicians fix that.
Certainly, we all are “done” with the virus but, unfortunately, the virus is not done with us. A few more weeks and we could possibly rein it it.
Remember the old saying: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Susan, the choice is not killing people or helping other people..The issue isn’t life versus money…I’ve been writing about minority suffering all week..that doesn’t mean we need to look away from other kinds of suffering..the idea is to relieve and support both..