If we want to live, taking risks is unavoidable
J ohn Kass' column in the Tuesday edition of The Day — “Please stop telling me to ‘stay safe'” — struck a chord. There does indeed seem to be a lack of balance in the news, abetted by the attitude that we are living in unprecedented times.
They may be unprecedented for some of us living today, but I recall the polio epidemic of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and the “Asian Flu” epidemic of 1957. I have read much about the “Spanish Flu” epidemic of 1918, which was far worse in its toll both in this country and around the world. And I am filled with admiration for the intelligence and courage of Walter Reed and Carlos Finlay for their work — and faith and courage — in identifying Yellow Fever.
There is a long list of courageous men and women, scientists, physicians and medical workers, who took personal risks in containing other infectious diseases: smallpox, malaria, cholera, typhoid. Some of those diseases are recurring even today in parts of the world where ignorance or superstition oppose vaccination, or where poverty makes vaccines unavailable. Most of us remember the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, which took friends and family from so many.
What is unprecedented today is the fear that seems almost to paralyze human interaction and community solidarity. That is what Kass is getting at, and he is right. Life involves risk. We admire people of faith and courage who are alongside others who are ill; chaplains who are with soldiers in the trenches.
We remember Fr. Malachi Judge, one of the first casualties among the first responders of 9/11, who sought not his personal safety but stood with the men and women from his firehouse. I recall the example of Fr. Louis Schuyler, Episcopal priest from New York, who left his parish in 1878 to assist the clergy and the Episcopal Sisters of St. Mary who were tending the sick and dying in Memphis during the terrible Yellow Fever epidemic in that city. Fully knowing the risks, he traveled to Memphis with his Bishop's permission and with his father's blessing, arriving to be with the dying. In the words of Rev. Dr. Dalzell, who was with him during the short time before Schuyler contracted the infection, “…his labors were abundant, and I was struck by his cheerfulness, and the hope he began to express that after all he might escape and continue to be of service. In less than four days from the time he reached the plague-stricken city he was lying in the throes of the deadly disease. But they were days of glorious work for Christ and the Church; visiting the sick, praying with, instructing and directing them, administering the holy sacraments to the dying, burying the dead and ministering hope and consolation to the bereaved.”
The present epidemic is not without precedent, and it is a reminder of our mortality as well as an opportunity for the renewal of faith in each other as well as the Giver of life.