For the People in the Back
I’m going to say this as loudly as my keyboard will allow and hopefully in a way that the people hiding in the back will hear me.
We all know someone with COVID-19 or maybe we have COVID-19 ourselves and we just aren’t showing any symptoms. Scroll your phone right now and look at the names of the family members and friends you love the most.
Simply going around these individuals right now is dangerous. The objective is not to sit and try to avoid the virus - Coronavirus is here and among us. Start moving like you have this virus and you don’t want to give it to the people in your life. Start existing like your very existence can be eliminated by this virus.
Imagine your spouse, your parents, your children being confirmed positive for the Coronavirus and not being able to be at their bedside. Imagine them dying and you not being their to hold their hand and tell them that you love them one more time. Imagine planning a funeral by phone, knowing that not even a small percentage of their family, their friends or their colleagues can attend.
Those thoughts alone should be enough motivation for you to do anything within your power to help stop the spread of this virus.
As I type, I can’t stop thinking about my 17 year-old student, set to give birth to her baby boy in about 10 days. It’s possible that neither her mother, nor the child’s father can be by her side.
NO, the stimulus checks will not arrive fast enough. NO, school likely won’t return to session this school year. NO, some jobs aren’t allowing employees to work from home. NO, none of this is ideal nor is any of this fair.
YES, we can do more to combat the spread.
Some of you are still planning parties and inviting people into your homes because you’re bored. Some of you are still allowing your children to play in the front yard with other children because they’re bored. Some of you are still getting in your cars and driving to gas stations because gas is cheap, touching the pump, keying in your pin number and touching your car only to return home, close your car door, open your front door and rest your items on the kitchen counter before washing your hands thoroughly.
Not you? Okay, maybe you’re wearing the mask and the gloves as you touch items in that beauty supply store, keeping the germs on the gloves and then taking the gloves off when you get home AFTER you’ve touched your steering wheel, your purse, the radio volume and then your car door.
The bottomline is you don’t like being told what to do, right? You don’t like someone dictating where you go, right? You want life to return to normal, right? But you’ve yet to accept the fact that we are as far away from normalcy as we’ve been in our lifetimes and because too many people stand between the point of normalcy and unfamiliar territory, doing exactly what the heck they want to do – this will take longer than any of us can predict.
Some of you are giving new and disgusting meaning to the belief that Americans are incredibly entitled.
As always, if it pertains to you – be offended. Just be offended at home this time, please.
