“The wildfire is only 10% contained, and it has jumped the highway causing several new flare-ups, with an increasing number of homes in jeopardy,” reported the Fire Chief. “Well,” replied the County Supervisor, “this firefight has been going on for weeks, and we’re tired of the inconvenience of the highway being closed. Just pack it up, Chief. The fire will burn itself out.”
This is seemingly the attitude of some people, including too many who are in positions of leadership. In Orange County, their County Health Director issued an order mandating masks be worn in offices, businesses, and public places where distancing was not possible. This caused a firestorm in which irate people brought signs to public meetings comparing her to Hitler. She received death threats and no support from the County Supervisors, and was ultimately bullied into resigning. Her successor tried to maintain the common-sense order, but eventually relented. One supervisor demanded, “Are you telling us masks, in your professional opinion, are going to be necessary until the end of time or until there’s a vaccine or what?” Here’s a thought, supervisor: how about we wear masks until there’s no longer an exponential death threat? At the very least, until cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are going steadily down instead of up? Just what do you think has changed that makes masks no longer needed?
I keep thinking about World War II, and “the greatest generation”. Our grandparents made phenomenal sacrifices, not only all of those who volunteered to go off to war, but all of those at home who willingly accepted harsh rationing of everything from gas to sugar, milk, and meat; who rounded up and donated whatever rubber and metal they could spare; who bought war bonds. Housewives left their homes and worked in factories around the clock to do what needed to be done to support the war effort. Their leaders inspired them, encouraged them, and the allied nations pulled together in heroic sacrifice and earned victory. I feel pride and admiration for the greatest generation, but also shudder in embarrassment at the pitiful comparison to the present. At a time when we desperately need an FDR or a Churchill, we have a gaping vacuum of leadership. Never has a President been more unequal to the challenges before us. But even where governors, mayors, and public health officials try to provide some leadership, they face a public with barely one vertebra of our grandparents’ backbone. We are asked to make the supreme sacrifice of staying home and watching TV, and wearing a cloth face-covering when we occasionally venture out. But no, that’s too much to ask. We want a haircut, and that mask is slightly uncomfortable. Can you imagine if our cohort had been the ones to face World War II? We’d be remembered as the whiniest generation. Or more likely, “der weinerlichste Generation”, since we’d all be speaking German.
This is seemingly the attitude of some people, including too many who are in positions of leadership. In Orange County, their County Health Director issued an order mandating masks be worn in offices, businesses, and public places where distancing was not possible. This caused a firestorm in which irate people brought signs to public meetings comparing her to Hitler. She received death threats and no support from the County Supervisors, and was ultimately bullied into resigning. Her successor tried to maintain the common-sense order, but eventually relented. One supervisor demanded, “Are you telling us masks, in your professional opinion, are going to be necessary until the end of time or until there’s a vaccine or what?” Here’s a thought, supervisor: how about we wear masks until there’s no longer an exponential death threat? At the very least, until cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are going steadily down instead of up? Just what do you think has changed that makes masks no longer needed?
I keep thinking about World War II, and “the greatest generation”. Our grandparents made phenomenal sacrifices, not only all of those who volunteered to go off to war, but all of those at home who willingly accepted harsh rationing of everything from gas to sugar, milk, and meat; who rounded up and donated whatever rubber and metal they could spare; who bought war bonds. Housewives left their homes and worked in factories around the clock to do what needed to be done to support the war effort. Their leaders inspired them, encouraged them, and the allied nations pulled together in heroic sacrifice and earned victory. I feel pride and admiration for the greatest generation, but also shudder in embarrassment at the pitiful comparison to the present. At a time when we desperately need an FDR or a Churchill, we have a gaping vacuum of leadership. Never has a President been more unequal to the challenges before us. But even where governors, mayors, and public health officials try to provide some leadership, they face a public with barely one vertebra of our grandparents’ backbone. We are asked to make the supreme sacrifice of staying home and watching TV, and wearing a cloth face-covering when we occasionally venture out. But no, that’s too much to ask. We want a haircut, and that mask is slightly uncomfortable. Can you imagine if our cohort had been the ones to face World War II? We’d be remembered as the whiniest generation. Or more likely, “der weinerlichste Generation”, since we’d all be speaking German.
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