The results are in; we speculated all week that this weekend could be a turning point in the quarantining of America. We’ve hit 6 weeks, and for many people there is no end or too far an end in sight, and the weather is warming. Additionally, parts of America are opening while others are being told they can’t. Small businesses, on the brink of collapse, have started to re-open regardless of “orders” to the contrary. All of that created a perfect storm this weekend and sent enough Americans to beaches, parks, and other recreational areas to make it a major news story. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8257167/Beach-nation-packed-people-ignore-social-distancing.html
Data supports this as well; using phone tracking (yes, they actually do that, can you believe it?) those who monitor such things have seen an uptick in movement over the last 2 weeks. More people are going out, running errands, taking drives, and not social distancing. People are becoming more brazen about posting photos of their house parties with friends they haven’t seen in weeks, and the mask-wearers seem to have hit critical mass at about 66% of the population. The rest of us simply won’t comply. https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2020/04/26/experts-worry-quarantine-fatigue-is-starting
And that’s the key number; it’s always been the key number. America runs on a third. Always has, always will. And, you’re welcome.
Nothing is new about this societal reaction we’re witnessing; this country has always been filled with cowards, lemmings, idiots, and gullible fools who will eschew critical thinking and common sense in the name of being told what to do by the almighty “experts.”
No one argues with or denies the fact that in 1776, the overwhelming majority of people in America were against the revolution. While we didn’t have Gallup and other polling companies then, everyone wrote everything down and the evidence is indisputable. Our nation of cowards was perfectly happy under the rule of a nation oceans away. “Why rock the boat,” was the cry of the times similar to todays “better safe than sorry.” https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/5641
Thank God a third of Americans led the way and created the country. And now today, a third of Americans will lead the way and let everyone else know that we’ve had it. And that it’s ok. And that death is part of life. And that this virus isn’t death for 99% of the people who get it. And that living is not merely defined as breathing, but rather, by actually experiencing a life outside of our homes and with people other than those that we live with.
The more of us who trek out, the more of the 66% will follow. We will provide them cover and we will show them that we can’t all be arrested or fined back into our homes. Ordered to do so, a large portion of law enforcement and military would refuse to enforce such, as we have already seen around the country. https://www.lacortenews.com/n/michigan-sheriffs-refuse-to-enforce-governors-overstepping-lockdown-orders
We love to glamorize things in America and we misremember or intentionally delete the past. We do it daily with people who die by suddenly proclaiming someone who was a rotten human being as a great loss; we do it in droves with our history. The “Greatest Generation” wasn’t everyone alive during World War II. It was about…you guessed it…a third of Americans who gave all they had to save the world. The rest of this country sat around, gleefully collected the trappings of the “New Deal,” didn’t work, decried our involvement in bringing down Hitler and Japan, and rounded up innocent Americans with different shaped eyes and put them in internment camps. Why? Because we are a nation of cowards and we always have been.
On behalf of the one-third I offer this; stay home, wear your masks and gloves and be afraid. Just stay out of our way. We will reopen America and show you that it’s ok and, when you’re ready, we will welcome you back into our society…the society that we saved. Again.
You’re welcome.
