I wish. Sometimes I think that those two words are my mantra. I wish that this virus would pass over us all. I am afraid that it won’t.

As week three comes to a close, more and more states are forcing citizens to stay at home. I don’t believe history will accurately record any of this, but I want my grandchildren and their children to know my version of the truth. History will use cute names and phrases to skirt around the shocking amount of personal freedom we are willingly giving away, out of fear and out of social pressure. Social distancing. Atlanta is threatening its citizens with heavy fines and up to one year in jail. Shelter in place. At this time, we have no nation wide law covering any of this, so everything varies from state to state. Right now and right here, on April 1, 2020, in Kentucky, I can go to the grocery store but restaurants wont let me in. Most are closed, but some have drive thru’s open. While we are out in public, we are to stay at least six feet apart. Many of us wear masks and rubber gloves. Our governor has told us not to travel to Tennessee, under a threat of being quarantined when we return, for two weeks. All non essential travel, and non essential work banned. Around four weeks ago, the hottest economy in the world was shut down by all of our country’s leaders and to compensate for loss of income, a 2.2 trillion dollar stimulus hand out was passed with just enough pork to satisfy democrats, and signed into law by our president. Meanwhile, great fortunes were lost by many just like me, and I’m sure what we are all wondering is… Will we ever recover from this self inflected wound? Time will tell, but I believe it will eventually devolve into a fight over whether our economy is more important than human lives. If you choose human life, may we someday discuss smoking, driving, abortion and war. In a capitalist society, the safest place to be is behind bars, but nobody is happy there. I suppose Patrick Henry would be shouted down today, but I’ll take dangerous liberty over the safety of bondage every time. Right here and right now is where you had to end up when you deny personal responsibility. Many hospital supplies are being hidden in warehouses across the most infected areas, and I doubt history will record this either, but the United States AG has gotten involved. I can only guess the motivation for this, but greed and politics would be a safe bet, I believe. There are whispers of this quarantine going on for weeks, but my fear is that many businesses will not recover now. We cannot go back, and I do believe that we will become something different. Maybe worse, and maybe better, but most certainly different. Our president has been giving nightly briefings for a couple of weeks, and last night he told us all to get ready for a very painful two weeks, and I know they are concerned that the deaths from this virus will be unbearable. Every day we hear that new cases are getting closer. Right here and right now friends and family are dying from things other than this virus but funeral homes are vacant because of restrictions on gathering. This is such a sad time, for so many reasons. I don’t know what lies ahead but I draw great comfort in knowing there is blood on our doorpost.

ws