A long, winding, semi-coherent, MOSTLY (but not overly) optimistic, rant...
Maybe I'm using too low of a bar here (and it's TOTALLY probable that I am), but I'm actually sort of pleasantly surprised with how the American public is handling this pandemic overall (NOT our "leadership", of which we REALLY have none outside of, I guess, Dr. Fauchi? But the public at large.).
Obviously I'm not referring to those apparently building shelters out of toilet paper mortared together with hand sanitizer (spoiler alert: If you're HOARDING all of the hand sanitizer, and most people can't get it, then people are running around WITHOUT it and are more likely to INFECT YOU). But, to be fair even to them, we have no LEADERSHIP (at least from a federal level), and humans are notoriously poor risk assessors, so they cling to something they can control, no matter how dumb it may be.
However, people are more or less complying with the shelter in place orders, social distancing, and seem to grasp the gravity of the situation all of a sudden. Don't get me wrong; I still hear a lot of joking about it even today at my work, but it's tone has changed COMPLETELY in the last couple of days; it's no longer mocking, but more of a "gallows humor" ("Haha, yeah, we need to be a least SIX FEET AWAY from each other during this meeting! Haha! But, seriously... cover your damn mouth" ). Which is progress. (And yes, if you're wondering, we're working on sending everybody home to work from there; ETA probably Monday).
If you told me 2 weeks ago that Americans would have to COMPLETELY change their habits and general way of life and wouldn't outright revolt, I would have been skeptical at best. But it's happening. And we're adapting QUICKLY to a fast moving landscape change.
I think, in a weird way, an entity that deserves a lot of the credit for people FINALLY taking it seriously is... the NBA.
March 11th: Everything was still business as usual, Trump was still calling the virus and it's coverage a hoax, and the average American really didn't seem to even NOTICE, or at least care ("More people die from the flu! 2% death rate?! I have a better chance of dying on the way to work!", etc., etc.).
Then, all of a sudden, the Thunder/Jazz game was postponed. Hours later, the NBA season was suspended entirely.
Within hours, the NHL suspended their season, the NCAA Tournament was CANCELLED, and, begrudgingly (or at least it seemed to me), the MLB cancelled the rest of Spring Training and then postponed the start of the season a whole 2 weeks (sure to be extended, if it hasn't already).
THIS, at least to me, seems to have been what FINALLY made it REAL to the average American. "Oh, SHIT. SPORTS are cancelled? These BILLION dollar businesses are just voluntarily stopping/suspending/cancelling whole seasons? This HAS to be something big."
And don't get me wrong; I'm a big sports fan myself, so I mean no disrespect or condescension on that at all. I'm more keyed into the news and politics in general than the average American, but even THAT told me that things were finally going to start getting REAL.
It's just that it's SUCH a prevalent part of our lives as Americans, that sometimes that's all you're wrapped up in. Maybe you don't follow politics, or even local news, but you follow your favorite sports team. THIS would be the thing to wake you up.
There will be a variety of opinions about THIS being the catalyst for making people take it seriously (up to, and including, WHY so late, it was out of self interest due to the player with a positive test, don't make the NBA out to be heroes, etc.; and I TOTALLY get that take). But regardless of that, it seems to have done the trick, and I credit Adam Silver and the NBA for kinda getting the ball rolling, at least a million percent more than I do Trump and his Gaggle of Assholes.
It wasn't until AFTER the NBA did this that Trump finally addressed the nation about the virus (or so I'm told; I can't listen to that bloated carcass without wanting to become one myself), and not until a full day later that he declared a National Emergency, which, to hear him say it, were "two very big words", which I HAVE to assume he meant LITERALLY, because, well, he's a fucking moron.
Should it have happened sooner? YES! Should it have taken sports shutting down to make this real to Americans? NO! Was it too little/too late? ...PROBABLY? But hopefully it helped in some small way.
I'm just glad it happened, because it seems to have woken some otherwise sleeping Americans.
I either believe that, or I have to believe that there were some ethical adults with some pull left in this Trump misAdministration to finally make him do the right thing. Yeah... I think he woke up the same way a lot of other Americans did; because sports (or big business) told him to do so.
Drunkenly (only because I have tomorrow off, PREPLANNED for the NCAA Tournament, LOL!) Yours,
El Sombrero
= new reply since forum marked as read
are still making beer. 