Your last sentence says so much. If we allow the virus to spread then life is literally cancelled for thousands more. We do not have that right. Talking about " herd immunity" is the same. Look at the state the UK is in as they tried that. Any hardship is worth it to save lives. Just hang on in there.
Back in the early days of the United States, many people in the East lived in crowded cities and eeked out a living.
So many decided to pack up and go west. Many died on the journey. But that didn’t stop a constant flow of people from attempting the journey. The dream of living a “large” life made the risks worth it. And people were coming the United States from all over the world to seek this large life–they, too, were willing to die to be free.
During the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, all of us were rightly willing to remain under cover to protect ourselves and others.
Those of us who kept our jobs–and there were many of us–kind of enjoyed going to work, then coming home to a cooking dinner or picking up take-out, and either doing long-delayed projects or thinking about those projects while we plopped down and binge-watched DVD sets that still had their cellophane wrappers.
But…those who lost their jobs because of the shutdown of the economy have not had such a happy time of it.
They’ve swallowed their pride as they paid bills with unemployment checks and stood in line at food pantries, remembering that only a few months earlier, they donated vanloads of groceries to those pantries.
Those who owned their own businesses were especially hard-hit because they had to let their beloved employees go. Many paid their employees out of their own savings–until the money ran out.
These people have listened to the non-stop “news” stories about COVID-19 and have decided to ignore the fuzzy-wuzzy emotional “spin” and instead, consider the facts:. about 2-3 percent of people who catch COVID-19 die. Most people who catch COVID-19 do NOT die and many experience only a flu-like illness and fully recover in a few weeks. Some are even symptom-free.
They have decided that they are willing to face the dangers of COVID-19 just like families faced the dangers of moving West or immigrating to the United States. They would rather put themselves and their families in danger than lose their jobs, their businesses, and their freedom.
That’s the way we have always done things in the United States. It’s only been in recent years, with the upbrining of the so called I-Gen (they’ve never lived without an I-Phone) that we are more concerned with “safety” than living a full life. Parents are arrested for letting their children walk to a neighborhood park or even play in their yard. Teenagers are delaying learning to drive until they are 18 or older. Many teens don’t DO anything, but spend most of their waking hours online on their tiny phones,
living a two-inch life.
It’s no wonder everyone is so terrifed of a virus. We’re not terrified of dying–we’re terrified of living.
I say it’s time we saddle up the horses and get moving “West” again.
Good way to put that!