The Giant Gifts

 Growing up, I thought of Aunt Dorothy as a movie star because she lived in California. As a little girl, while mommy wrote her letters, I would draw her pictures. The year after mommy died, Dad drove us to California and I met her for the first time, at nine years old. The first words out my mouth were, 'You look just like mommy.' And she did!

Over the years, Grandma always made sure I knew where Aunt Dorothy was because she and her husband moved a lot. After Grandma died, I learned that Aunt Dorothy had moved back to the area and was living in an assisted living facility not far from home. Seeing her for the first time in so many years, she asked, "Who do I look like now?" 'You look just like Grandma!' And she did!

We had a few precious years filled with memories. She told stories and filled in family history. She told of an early Christmas memory going to her Grandma's big house in Pittsburgh. She described a giant tree, 2 stories tall, around which the children sat waiting for their special gift. They each got one present and she was delighted with a mickey mouse watch - all the rage that year.

Growing up, Aunt Dorothy always sent us a box of dates for Christmas so I began making a little treat package for her including dates. But her favorite part was a bag of fortune cookies that she would save for New Years eve. She would gather her friends and they would open them then.

And so, every year I have dates at Christmas and find fortune cookies if I can. I'll hear her infectious laugh, see her and mommy and Grandma too. I'll thank them for all the gifts they gave me that are far bigger than even that giant Christmas tree.

Pandemic of ill will

There seems to be a pandemic of ill will in this country. It's an illness attacking our values.

Historically, America has been a country that led the world in attacking disease. Our approach to tackling tuberculoses, polio, chicken pox, measles and many other community spread diseases have been generally accepted and successful. We have historically shown value for human life. 

Herd immunity as a goal for the end of this pandemic is a shared goal; left, right and in the middle. How we get there is the huge divide. These opposing views are making it impossible to get a handle on this virus.

On one end, herd immunity and survival of the fittest are the same thing. These people tend to see themselves as fit enough to survive, of course. With this approach there should be no mitigation efforts. Everyone is on their own to handle the virus and there seems to be a certainty that the vast majority of people can survive it. Those who don't were going to die of something anyway.

Survival of the fittest discounts or dismisses the impact on the health care system. They are blind to the number of hospitals across the country that are overwhelmed, EMT workers overstressed, morgues overflowing in some regions. Or perhaps they feel this is an acceptable cost. Perhaps they feel mitigation efforts are too costly and are willing to let the cost be paid on this end of our society.

On the other end, herd immunity means a vaccine. A vaccine provides immunity in a controlled way, mitigating the level of illness and death. The problem here is that the vaccine is slow in coming and in actually creating herd immunity on a mass scale. AND many of the survival of the fittest folks will have nothing to do with it.

In between, mitigation efforts are painful and costly. Business shutdowns with no relief are devastating, especially for small businesses. School shut downs spiral families into chaos and financial hardship. Wearing a mask everywhere is a pain in the ass. Fighting one another over all of it is exhausting. 

What has been missing is leadership that is focused on an approach that brings us closer together in an approach to dealing with this pandemic. We all want to get back to some semblance of normal. We all want to survive this thing physically, emotionally and financially.

Number ONE - We cannot overwhelm our health care systems. PERIOD! We use contact tracing to accurately identify the greatest risk of spread and we shut it down. 

Number TWO - We accurately identify the financial impact of number one and provide funding to those who need it to survive. Screw the deficit. If we can go to war with blind cost and cut taxes willy nilly, we can spend money on mitigating a pandemic.

Number THREE - STOP fighting each other. Fight the virus. Act like we care about each other. Be a community.

This is not an unsolvable problem. We can do this. Let's do it!