Ok. Let’s all push ‘pause’ for a moment and catch our breath. If you came here to have more Covid-19 statistics, projections and scientific mumbo-jumbo shoved down your throats, close your browser now.
Let me be very clear from the gate: what you are seeing done by ALL of our mainstream media outlets in regards to covering the Coronavirus is the equivalent to them collectively running into a packed movie theater, yelling “Fire” and then chaining the doors shut. It’s criminal. Hands down.
Is there any person in this room that doesn’t believe that America will come out on the other side of this virus still in one piece? Will that real slim shady please stand up. However, wherever you look, no matter what channel you turn on, it’s been non-stop doom and gloom. The TV and social media would have you believe that we are mere days away from the Purge; and ya know what? If we keep down this spiraling rabbit hole of self-inflicted paranoia, they’re not that far off.
You see this being played out now, seemingly daily, at supermarkets and pharmacies. Normally logical people now turning into rabid consumers of the most mundane goods – buying up things simply to stock up their house for the impending apocalypse that the TV is promising.
FOR GOD’S SAKE: STOP!
We are doing this to ourselves and we are, once again, being manipulated and moved around a chess board as part of a game that we aren’t even invited to play in. There is a football fields difference between prudent precaution and outright pandemonium. We are pushing ourselves to the brink of a societal condition that will test both our humanity and our morality.
Our elected officials, starting at even the lowest levels, are being dragged into this game of oneupmanship as it pertains to preparedness and response. Let’s be real: once you are elected to even the most insignificant political position, your primary function in life becomes STAYING elected. That’s simple human nature. So, if the mayor of the town next to you is taking steps A-C, then, at minimum, you’d better be taking the same steps, if not taking that extra step to D. You will never be crucified for overreacting in the political world when it comes to protecting your constituents. However, be that politician who takes the laid back approach and has one of your constituents get sick (which, mind you, is going to happen regardless). If that happens? Your political career is caput – blessing in disguise if you asked me.
The Covid-19 virus is real. There’s no debate there. Depending on where you fall on the tinfoil hat spectrum, it either came from Chinese people eating bats or from a lab intended to intentionally develop a virus that was then, in turn, released onto it’s own people in some form of chemical warfare. Regardless of the who’s and the why’s, it’s real. What virtually all scientists will agree on is that, while we’re ALL at risk of catching the virus, it mainly only threatens the lives of infants, the elderly or those who are otherwise medically compromised. For the majority of the rest of society, like, say, the Tom Hanks’ of the world, you’re going to sit under a blanket, drink some chicken soup, sweat it out for a few weeks and then work your way back from one of the worst cases of the ‘flu’ you’ve ever had.
So what are we to do? The answer is actually pretty simple and counterproductive to the agenda being shoved down our throats by the ones really at the wheel: live our lives.
The calm in the storm begins with our civil servants and our educators. It is our moral obligation to demonstrate steady, logical, clear-headed guidance that is both helpful and reasonable. The ones we are paid to protect and, more importantly, our children are looking to us first and foremost. I have always told my daughters since they were old enough to understand what I was saying: “I will never lie to you. If you have a reason to be scared, I’ll tell you. In return, I need you to promise me that you won’t be scared until then.”
I think we can all agree at this point that, regardless of age, sex, race, religion or party affiliation, our politicians are all full of shit. They know more than they tell and only tell a version of the truth that is run through hundreds of filters and has been amended hundreds of more times. They’re trash.
WE THE PEOPLE are responsible for us; and, in this case, we are failing ourselves.
I know it comes off as callous, but please believe me when I say that it is not intended to be. Will people die from Covid-19? Yes. Absolutely. Will exponentially more die in the exact same time frame from illnesses as common as the flu all the way up to the most heinous of scumbags, cancer? Also, yes. The flu, in it’s most common form, can be deadly to an infant or the elderly. If your immune system is compromised, what would otherwise be a common cold to a healthy adult can be a death sentence to you. None of this is new. You can change the players, but the game remains the same.
Prudent precautions. Know the risks and take steps to do the best you can to prevent getting sick; no different than you SHOULD have been doing every other flu season. Can anyone tell me what one town ordering their residents to stay inside is going to accomplish when the next town over – which in some cases is across the street – is likely not doing the same? How long do you do something like that? Days? Weeks? Months? Does anyone really believe that is going to solve anything? Ohhhh, it’s going to slow it. I get it. Ok, so when and how do we decide that it’s been slowed? Thousands of cases are popping up now which is going to be a direct byproduct of the testing that is now being done. OF COURSE the number of confirmed cases is going to skyrocket once you start performing tests for the specific virus. Truth be told, people have likely been getting sick with this virus since late last year and just dismissed it as the worst flu of their lives.
Does anyone really believe sending every American $1000 is going to solve anything? To the Americans who have THOUSANDS of dollars of bills a month or own a business that is now being forced to shut down as a result of the political game called “I can be more proactive than you can be”, $1000 is an insult.
In the coming weeks, our boys over at The Blue Magazine will be assembling some of the smartest political and law enforcement minds in the game such as Former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik. Their collective goal will be to do just what we’ve talked about here tonight: provide the American citizens with clear-headed, no nonsense, panic free perspective. If you don’t follow the magazine yet, you should find your way over to their social media pages. More than likely, the addresses coming from their team of contributors will be live-streamed on their Facebook page.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some inspiration from one of America’s most treasured artists, Staten Island native Scott LoBaido. All that’s required is one word and, apropos, the title of one of his latest prints – “Resilience”.
This country is the greatest country on the planet and made up of amazing citizens from all walks of life. Don’t rely on a government not even bound to the same rules they set for you to tell you things that you already know. Take this opportunity to help the person standing next to you. You don’t need to be told that that is the right thing to do and you certainly don’t need permission to do it. Work the problem together. Control your irrational fears and lead by example; don’t wait to be lead. Do this, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how fast this seems to come and go and, before you know it, we’ll all be at the Sun Tavern making fun of the Boston Red Sox – a treatment they so justly deserve.
Calm in the storm.