Staying home is an act of love
I was appalled at public protests this week in several states violating stay at home and physical distancing orders, and demanding that businesses be allowed to re-open.
These protesters, who seemed to be overwhelmingly white, drove in trucks past their state capitals, and in some cases, waved confederate flags, and carried guns. I don’t know if any of those actions were illegal. But those who congregated in the hundreds along parade routes and in other dense formations were breaking the law. More importantly, they were endangering other people.
The stay at home and physical distancing measures that most states have implemented were a necessary response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the most lethal global plague in a hundred years. As I write, it has killed over 160,000 people worldwide, and over 40,000 Americans.
That is more Americans dead in a few weeks than were killed in combat (33,686) in the entire Korean War. My father served in that war, though thankfully he did not die in combat. Still a statistic like that is personal to me. The life of every person who died of COVID-19, is also personal to someone. Each of them mattered.
Needlessly congregating with other people during this plague is a hateful act. It spreads the virus faster and farther, enabling it to kill more people. There is no treatment, no vaccine. The only defense we have right now is to stay out of its way. We will only succeed if most of our neighbors are trying to do the same.
It follows then, that the most loving, most patriotic thing anyone can do right now is to stay home as much as possible, and to support those who are trying to save lives. That includes supporting leaders who are making the tough decisions. Those decisions should be driven by science, not politics.
These protesters, who seemed to be overwhelmingly white, drove in trucks past their state capitals, and in some cases, waved confederate flags, and carried guns. I don’t know if any of those actions were illegal. But those who congregated in the hundreds along parade routes and in other dense formations were breaking the law. More importantly, they were endangering other people.
The stay at home and physical distancing measures that most states have implemented were a necessary response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the most lethal global plague in a hundred years. As I write, it has killed over 160,000 people worldwide, and over 40,000 Americans.
That is more Americans dead in a few weeks than were killed in combat (33,686) in the entire Korean War. My father served in that war, though thankfully he did not die in combat. Still a statistic like that is personal to me. The life of every person who died of COVID-19, is also personal to someone. Each of them mattered.
Needlessly congregating with other people during this plague is a hateful act. It spreads the virus faster and farther, enabling it to kill more people. There is no treatment, no vaccine. The only defense we have right now is to stay out of its way. We will only succeed if most of our neighbors are trying to do the same.
It follows then, that the most loving, most patriotic thing anyone can do right now is to stay home as much as possible, and to support those who are trying to save lives. That includes supporting leaders who are making the tough decisions. Those decisions should be driven by science, not politics.
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