Can America still be trusted to do the right thing?
“Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.”
People believe Winston Churchill said that. He didn’t, but he should have because it’s true.
Look at this mess we’re in. The allegedly greatest country in the world is being defeated by a bug too small to see with the naked eye. What?
First thing we did wrong, thanks to our president, is piddle around for two months and let the virus get more than a toehold.
Finally, we awoke to the threat and locked down. We were told to stay home and wear masks if we went out. Businesses were closed for months. Gradually, the critical numbers started down. We had the virus on the run.
The White House task force on the pandemic assembled criteria for allowing cities and states to know when to reopen.
But after several weeks, Americans got tired of doing the right thing. First, we had small but loud groups, some armed with rifles, picketing government buildings, demanding the country be opened up. Their freedom was being infringed. Some of them joined President Trump and called the virus a “hoax.”
The president urged us to reopen, even though no city or state had achieved the numbers his own task force recommended for reopening. He urged us to crowd into churches on Easter. No one else thought that was a good idea.
By then, 100,000 Americans (now 131,000 and still climbing) had died, a death rate higher than any of the other 187 countries in the world. (“We’re No. 1!”) But the number of hospitalizations and deaths were slowly coming down.
Then came Memorial Day. Trump proposed we head for the beach or at least not stay home. Many Americans, who have the patience of puppies at dinnertime, followed his lead. With only 4% of the world’s population, America has suffered 20% of all the virus-related deaths. Our action and the government’s inaction is literally killing Americans.
Lots of us don’t seem to care. One protester on Fox News said if he gets the disease, he would simply “beat it.” How perfectly American. If we are anything these days as a people, it is arrogant.
Experts warned that such ignorance could send infection and hospital rates soaring again.
But we’re Americans. If we don’t like the science, we simply don’t believe it. We’re still arguing about climate change and guns, for crying out loud. (Another area in which we excel is deaths by guns. “We’re No. 1 again!”)
Quite a few of us think the “experts” are spouting hooey. As Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said recently, “(Dr. Anthony) Fauci said today that he’s concerned about states like Texas that skipped over certain things. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We haven’t skipped over anything. The only thing I’m skipping over is listening to him.” Texas and the other states did skip over the White House recommendations on when to open.
So now, virus infections and hospital admissions are skyrocketing again.
One day last week, America recorded a record 50,000 new virus infections in one day. Fauci, who is this country’s foremost expert on the virus, says we could hit 100,000 new cases per day by fall if we don’t get it under control.
I saw a meme the first week of the lockdown that was pretty funny back then. It said something like, “Our fathers and grandfathers were asked to fight a war and save the world. We’re asked to sit on the couch and watch Netflix. We can do this.” Not so far.
Perhaps the Churchill misquote will come to pass. We are certainly busy exhausting all the other solutions. Maybe we’ll change direction and do the right thing now.
I fear for our country if we don’t.