Now’s the time to set differences aside
If your mind was at all open you’d have had to agree with Vice President Mike Pence when he spoke at Friday’s White House press conference, surrounded by his boss and titans from the corporate world — WalMart, Walgreen’s, Target, CVS — suggesting the occasion should be an inspiration for all of America.
That includes that segment of the nation — in its politics and its media — that’s so sour on Donald Trump it’s incapable of seeing any good at all in him as commander in chief.
If yesterday didn’t soften them, nothing will. What a lost opportunity. In times gone by, one of our warmest memories in the wake of a disaster has been its unifying effect.
We saw it while smoke was still rising above the ruins on 9/11.
We saw it in the aftermath of the Blizzard of ’78.
We’ve seen it most recently as strangers rushed in on the heels of a tornado to help inhabitants of Tennessee.
Nothing’s more consummately American than pulling together in times of calamity, and this surely is one of those times.
Even those representatives of corporate America — there to offer gestures of support, including use of their parking lots for the processing of testing procedures — were in the spirit of the moment.
As one noted, “Normally we’re competitors,” but on this occasion, he added, they stood shoulder-to-shoulder in taking on a common enemy.
Little wonder Trump would vow, “All together, we will get through it.”
It’s OK to be scared, but anger should have nothing to do with our feelings regarding this frightening plague because, when you think about it, where would we focus our rage?
On China, which reportedly dragged its feet on alerting the rest of the world to the existence of this scourge that began in its sprawling city of Wuhan?
Fair enough. But it’s unlikely earlier notice would have spared us the eventual panic we’re seeing today with schools and games shut down while hordes line up at supermarkets to clear the shelves of hand sanitizers and toilet paper.
This panic might have been delayed, but not avoided.
Eventually, we’d have all wound up in the same boat, sailing the same troubled waters.
No one’s immune. Everyone’s susceptible.
No, if there’s any resentment here it’s aimed at those who’d exploit these anxious days by fanning fears, assessing blame and shamelessly critiquing government officials, from the president on down, substituting their own self-centered agendas for a national oneness that’s urgently needed right now, like the one we saw at the White House yesterday.
There should be nothing partisan about this. As Scripture’s notes, the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. So does coronavirus. But the good news is the rain eventually stops, and, God willing, this will, too.