Sunday, May 24, 2020
Sunday Reflection: What comes next?
Things are changing.
States are opening up, and so are the doors to homes and businesses. I see some people being careful, and others being careless as they venture out of isolation. I am probably somewhere in between.
The United States never pursued the route some other countries did (with varying degrees of success). While they sought to stamp out the Coronavirus with stringent isolation and tracing, we simply wanted to "flatten the curve"-- lots of people would still get the disease, but the medical system would better be able to handle it. In some places, that seems to be working. The problem with this model, of course, is that many people-- nearly 100,000 already-- die of the illness.
It's going to be a long, cruel year. I don't know how school will work in the fall (and I teach school). I do know that we have a long way to go in this fight.
There is this basic human conundrum we face in so many ways: the tension between what we want to do and what we should do. Often, people finesse this by pretending that these two are the same-- that what they want to do is also what is morally right. For example, people who ignore safety precautions and venture out into the mall without a mask are casting their decision as morally right because it is a blow for "freedom." Which... it's not. We always have the freedom to do harmful things within the bounds of the law, but that doesn't expand freedom any. That freedom already existed.
Politics has pushed some Americans to conflate selfishness with patriotism, when for all of American history the opposite has been true: patriotism is rooted in sacrifice and selflessness. What a sad corner to have turned....
