- At the grocery store, everyone masked, unable to smile at each other. Everyone standing obediently like cattle behind taped lines. Eyes reproachful, scared, helpless, resigned.
- My mother, isolated in a nursing home, while my father is isolated at home.
- Freedoms surrendered without protest. Protesters vilified, as in Michigan.
- Shutdowns extended as the number of cases tips into decline, before we even get to the end of the first shutdown.
- My state governed as if it is 100% NYC, when in fact the vast majority is neither urban metropolis nor running high in infections.
- Pointless restrictions, like “Everyone must wear a mask or cloth covering.” Cloth coverings have no protective value at all.
- Classrooms replaced by cyberspace. Bodies become abstractions. Conversations flattened to the dimensions of screen or keyboard.
- Information control, like “No need to wear a mask unless you’re sick”… “Okay, maybe a mask is good if it keeps you from touching your face”… “Okay, we didn’t want to admit it because there aren’t enough masks and we didn’t want a run on the supply, but masks are good.”
- Information control, like Andover, New Jersey, where bodies were literally piled up in a nursing home before someone blew the whistle.
- Politics. Nancy Pelosi, mindlessly opposing anything the president suggests. Trump, defending his ego. Name-calling and posturing. Civil servants who value power so much they prefer a pandemic to a thriving economy.
- Journalists, trapped in their own narratives rather than conveying important information and trusting us to understand it.
- Weakness of character. Why are we so afraid of a virus? This is not the bubonic plague. We have immune systems, and as we have heard many, many times, the vast majority who scurry around masked and gloved or sit trapped at home while their livelihoods dry up would experience mild symptoms, then heal.
- In all, lack of respect for people. We aren’t toddlers that need to be reminded ad infinitum to wash our hands. We care about the vulnerable and know enough to take precautions around them.
- The governor of New York, encouraging citizens to scold one another if observed to be without a mask.
- In all, loss of freedom. What has happened to the shared conviction that personal liberty is a foundational value that should not be flattened by power-loving, greedy bureaucrats?
- The knowledge that some of these things will never go away, even after COVID-19 does.
