Random Stuff, Part 3: Do People Really Think Like This?

Today, as of writing this, we’re on Day-26 of the Michigan Shelter-in-Place (aka “Stay At Home”).  Michigan kids, in fact, had their last day of school 30-days ago. I know. I’ve been journaling every day. We’re Stay-At-Home until April 30th, at least.

I heard today (again, Day-26) there is a movement in Michigan, and elsewhere, to end the quarantining and the social distancing and for everyone to go back to work and back to their hobbies, boats, and cabins, and just be done with this. Despite more than 20,000 dead Americans over the course of about 10-weeks, this anti-stay-at-home group seems to think money woes, the economic impact, and the personal sacrifice is too much for them to take. The data showing what this Coronavirus does to a population is not more than 4-months old, so it’s not like we are looking way into history and debating something that we cannot prove. The facts and evidence are right in front of us. It seems clear to me, this virus kills. It has killed exactly as predicted it would in a free and open society that did not act fast enough or disciplined enough.

Please don’t quote the number of flu deaths and automobile deaths to prove it’s just like anything else that kills – those are false equivalencies. Do you forget what a “false equivalency” is? I’ve been trying to explain it to my children. This video is a very good explanation in less than 5-minutes (and it has colors and happy music) …and yes, I know about Above the Noise and how it appears to lean. My takeaway is, if you want to talk about the flu or automobile fatalities, we can. But those are two unique conversations and I would not compare either one of those to Cancer, gun related deaths …or Coronavirus. Get it?

America is the best. Period. At everything. Inventing stuff. Fighting wars. Being wealthy. And we’re the best at dying from this virus …and at basktball. What? We are the best at basketball. Tell me we’re not. We’re also a completely free society. Full of individuals. We celebrate the mavericks, visionaries, and scoundrels that built this great nation. We love both Bill Gates (nice, kind-hearted) and Steve Jobs (brash, asshole). But this complete freedom, at this moment in history, might be the a thing that dooms us.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I would love if asshole-type quit his job at whatever laboratory where he’s working and invested his own money into a lab and discovered crystal meth cures Coronavirus, even thought he was cheating on his wife and evading taxes. I’d buy the book about his life story and try and figure out how to apply his life of meth, adultery, and crime to my work life. I would. You would, too. That book would be a best-seller.

Back to the matter at hand.

More Americans have died from Coronavirus than have died in any other country, and we’re not done dying. The daily body count shows us that. Medical experts, many who’ve spent their entire lives investigating infectious diseases, told us what was going to happen before it happened, they have been trying to help us through it while it is happening, and now they’re trying to tell us what will happen in the next few weeks and months if we choose behavior-A (less people die) or behavior-B (more people die).

So this is why I’m so bothered. It feels like there’s a segment of the population going with the “welp, ya gotta die sometime” philosophy and are throwing up their hands after only 26-days (in Michigan) and saying, “this inconvenience to me is too hard to deal with and it’s OK if people die, and keep dying. People are dying, anyway, despite the four whole weeks I’ve been sacrificing. Ugh. Four weeks!?!?!?! How can we possibly be expected to sacrifice this much?”  

My hope is these vocal critics of the need to quarantine are less than 20% of the population – but I fear it’s a growing movement.

Do people make their decisions and form their opinions because they hate Governor Whitmer or President Trump? Meaning, no matter what Whitmer does, even if it’s save a puppy from a burning building, they’ll find a way to hate it. I admit, I’m no fan of Trump and feel his cavalier response to this in January, February, and even into March contributed to the United States having nearly 25% of all the deaths in the world.

Then again, if he had declared martial law in mid-Feburary, and sent the National Guard into every corner of the United States, forcing everyone to shelter-in-place completely, I know his detractors would’ve hated him for that. And if Whitmer had said at that time he was overreaching and yelled, “State’s rights,” and kept our schools and factories open, the same people who hate her for locking us down would’ve hated her for “keeping us open” in this alternate universe I’ve dreamed up.

I guess my point is this …let Politicians fight like teenagers on social media and in the news. Let us …we the people …the majority of whom do NOT give money to a political party or candidate, keep open ears and open minds. The rest of us? Let’s talk it through and figure out a solution, like America has always done.

If we all go back to normal, with herd-immunity happen? Or not? How many people do the experts say will die? Is there a way to go somewhat-back-to-normal? If we look at the current situation as “hitting the pause button”, how can we make sure when we hit “Play” that we can start the music right from where we left off? Would it help if all States, all at once, hit the “pause” button? How long would we need to “pause?”

Experts? Scientists?  I ask you.

And can the rest of us stop pretending politicans are anything but self-serving narcissists who only think about decisions in the context of how it keeps them employed and in power?

Friends? Family? I love you.