Love in the Time of COVID-19

So .  .  . 

How is it going? Anything new in your life?

Okay that's over.

I have great concerns about the political response to COVID-19. Note, I am not denying any medical, scientific or public health claim on the issue. Of course I don’t believe it’s a "hoax" or "conspiracy." My concern is with the politicians at the Federal, State and Local level and their response. My concern is with the experts who work for public agencies and are advising those politicians. Sure I am a skeptic of these people. Not just about the current crisis, but about all things. I would think all free born Americans are. Such skepticism is based on the knowledge all people are self-interested and not angels. This is not a new knowledge. The Founders knew this and baked it into our founding documents. I have skepticism when "experts" tell us the world is going to end in five years, every five years, for the last 50 years or a politicians tell us only they can save us by growing government and limiting citizens' rights to live in the house they want or drive the vehicle they want (or drive a vehicle at all). I especially have skepticism when the experts and politicians are talking about apocalyptic predictions. This is because of past doomsday predictions which, while there were real effects, the world did not end. This includes Y2K, global warming, Ebola, AIDS, MRSA, VRSA, Tuberculosis, Measles, West Nile, Mad Cow, SARS, HSN1, H1N1 (Swine flu), Fukushima nuclear accident, Swine Flu 2009-10. I am always skeptical of people who have political motivations to make things a "crisis" and whose answer is always more government and more spending.

I am skeptical about a president, governors and mayors who get to act "big" during important times. There is an old discussion about generals and admirals that goes like this: what if the greatest general or admiral to ever live had a career when there was no war? How would we know if they were great? Only the "lucky" ones, it is said, get a war. Whether the story is apocryphal or not, it went around that Clinton thought Bush was lucky because he had 9/11. That idea that a politician wants a crisis is on my mind. As I said, I don’t think there is an overall conspiracy but more of politicians stumbling in to this. These politicians have experts advising them of the apocalypse, they have the political pressure of one-upmanship of what neighboring states politicians are doing, and they have a press which is not asking any serious questions but pressuring a crisis. Most of all I think they fear the political repercussions of being seen as doing nothing. Perhaps the most dangerous force in all of politics.

This skepticism applies to the current situation. What has happened is unprecedented. Not many things are "unprecedented." This is. We have shut down the world economy, we have closed schools, public buildings, businesses, concerts, sporting events, banks and churches. Now we may all be put on house arrest. The streets are empty. Hundreds of thousands, and maybe millions, are instantly out of work. Not just in one part of the country due to a natural disaster or weather event, but in the whole county, the whole world. Name an equivalent event in world history? 

I cannot.

It is impossible for this to happen and blindly accept this without questioning. I always worry about such blind acceptance. Such blind acceptance leads to dark places. Americans in the 1940 blindly accepted the rounding up of American citizens and their internment in camps because the politicians told them it was for their "safety." There are many more example.

This does not feel right. It's like the reaction of people to the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds or the Red Scare. It's like an episode of the Twilight Zone. It does not feel like 9/11. It is different. There we had an external threat we could attack. This is different.

Every time the government restricts fundamental and constitutional rights such as the freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, freedom to contract, the right to travel and be in business, everyone should be asking serious questions of that government. Such questions as how is this different than previous pandemics and events listed above? How is this different than other pandemics when we did not react in such a manner? Questions such as when is this going to end? And when it ends, are we going to reduce the size of government back to where it was? This was a question Churchill had during WWII. He continued asking the question after the war when he pointed out that more people were working or the British government in 1950 peacetime than had been in uniform during the war.

I have heard we can’t "overreact" to this crisis. Really. I can think of up scenarios of overreaction that would go too far. How about a tank on every corner and people shot if they leave their house? I use that scenario just to prove there are limits. I don’t think it's going to happen. But we should have a discussion on the limits. Closing business? Restricting freedom of movement by ordering people restricted to their homes? Where is the line? Where is the debate about the line? I would like there to be a debate of our elected representatives. 

Governor Cuomo of New York said about the restrictions, "When we look back at this situation ten years from now, I want to be able to say to the people of New York I did everything we could do. I did everything we could do. This is about saving lives and if everything we do saves just one life, I'll be happy." One life? Is that the new mathematics of this? Just one life? So he would favor shutting down all US Highways to save one life? Or maybe suspend all sporting events to save one life? Where is the line on that? We seem to have strayed a long way from guys strapping themselves in on top of a rocket and going to the moon or crawling up the beach on D-Day. Cuomo went on to assure us that although there would be civil fines for businesses that do not close, "[w]e don’t have any individual fines, at this point." At this point. That's reassuring.

One unanswered question is, what are we going to do next time? How can we top this? No one is answering that question.

From a few reactions I see on Facebook of people over-panicking it seems people are willing to give up democracy, representative government and debate because of fear.

There was criticism of Tom Emmer because he wouldn’t vote for a bill he had no possible time to read. He should be praised for doing his job. Democracy, representative government and debate did not end during 9/11 or the US Civil War or as bombs were dropping on London. Why are people so willing to end it now? There should be a debate and the debate should be televised.

We are a long way from "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself," "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" and "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."

Ask questions. Demand answers. Let there be a public debate. Let that debate start now.