Of Social Distance and Political Idiots

Well, here my family all are, well into "social distancing," which is a fancy name for "stay the hell away from, well, everyone."

Family. Friends. Work. School. Everyone.

This is not easy. I have been crying for my grandchildren.  We are fortunate to live when we do, however.  I like to read stories about Arctic explorers, among other things, and the tales told of the 1800s are mostly of individuals, and teams, that went off to explore and didn't plan to come back for several years.

During all that time they were completely cut off -- no mail, no telephone, no radio, no hope of rescue if things got ugly.  "We'll be back in two years," was what they would say. "If we're not back in three, send someone to look."

Members of the doomed Franklin expedition, which went out in 1845 to find the Northwest Passage, left such a message. They are still being found where they died.

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So I can't complain when my entire family is up on my computer screen, my grandkids wiggling and squirming and playing games, trying to hog the spotlight.  It's chaos, but chaos I can be part of. And we're together.

This is not easy.  We humans need touch and closeness.  We are social animals and those are part of our make-up. One of my kids was telling me yesterday how deeply he missed his mother's hugs.

Families, especially, need everyone in that family.  Studies have shown that grandparents have a huge impact on their grandchildren's development.  They are critical for passing down family traditions, teaching family values, holding the whole family together.  Tribes that revere their elders do so because they know the critical role those elders play long after they are physically able to work, or fight.

And then we have Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (click) who seems to think that America's elderly are expendable in this situation. Actually said they should accept higher risk for the greater economic good.

I've heard others say this -- that a certain level of death from this pandemic is inevitable and the question is how to balance effort with an acceptable level of dead. Mr. Patrick's statement strikes me as bravado from someone who, I am guessing, is actually pretty sure he will survive because he's so clever.

It's the old "Some of you may die, but it is a sacrifice I'm willing to make" thing. To which I replay, "Gee, thanks for the honor, but no thanks."

Sadly, doctors in ICUs around the world are having to make decisions that impact the elderly more already.  Given someone who is 80 years old and has a 5 percent chance of surviving, and one who is 40 with a 50 percent chance,  and only one ICU bed, they grit their teeth condemn the old one to die a lonely and horrible death.  (Click for NY Times Story Here)

But that's medical triage.  That happens.

This is economic triage, the argument that we're killing the nation's economy to save too few lives.

Anything about that ring harsh to you?  We've been hearing for years from folks like Mr. Patrick how precious all life is. Now he has a chance to prove it and he says, "Well, some lives, maybe not."

Doesn't that include mine?

I hear daily from my kids about how they want me to take care of myself. Stay home, they say. Stay safe.

My granddaughter made a cake and wrote "stuck together"
to show how we're all in this.

They get it, and I get it. Which is why I am absolutely paranoid at this point. I have to honor their work to keep myself safe.

But more, a family is an integrated unit.  It needs all its parts, equally, to survive and grow.  Folks like Mr. Patrick, who seems to think some parts are more equal than others, have an astonishingly jaded and selfish world-view.

But I hear you ask: "What about the consumer and service economy, which is, yes, more than 70 percent of the whole national economy? Will a 3-month shutdown ruin it?"

Let's have a little perspective here.

World War II turned Germany's economy -- service and industrial -- into flaming piles of rubble. Whole cities were laid waste. Unemployment was probably 90 percent. They were bartering cigarettes for food.

Ten years later, Germany was the industrial and "service economy" leader of Western Europe.  You honestly telling me the people of the United States couldn't do that?  Or more?

Trust me: Cruise ships will still be here. When this is over you'll still be able to get a haircut, go to a movie, eat dinner out.

Until then, stay together, all of us. We don't have anyone else, and none of us is expendable.