thomas leverett weblog: April 2020

Sunday, April 26, 2020

coronavirus

Just as I generally am inclined to do, I have begun to seriously wonder what kinds of things have changed permanently, and what this will mean for our future. It so happens that I have time to ponder these questions, because I'm home and we only go to town once a week, if that (mind you, I'm still busy, raising the last four children, trying to get them on zoom, etc.).

The one I've been mourning today is trains. Who would ride an Amtrak anymore? I'm heartbroken as trains will be down a year, two, maybe permanently. We'll have to go back to hopping freights if we want a train ride.

Theaters, malls, department stores, buses, tour boats, all these I think are gone. Who's going to want to sign up for them when there is a safer way? I think life for a while - maybe two or three years - will be finding different ways to do such things. Libraries will go online. Schools will be more online than they were. Conferences and legislatures will be online.

Beauty salons, barber shops, gone. Restaurants, limited. You can still see how hooked we were to restaurants by the stiff trade in takeout. People can cook more, and will, and will bake more as well, but restaurants will still compete for a certain, smaller, chunk of income. As for barber shops and beauty salons, they'll be kind of pointless after a while. What for, for zoom meetings? I think that the governors can pressure them in to opening but that's not the same as pressuring people into patronizing them, when they not only don't want to (because of covid) but also don't need to (because they live in their pajamas these days).

Down here, it'll all be oil. permian boys will be out of work. And may come looking for boats in lawns (have been known to steal these, in dry times). It's not easy to simply find a new job.

Sunday, April 05, 2020

kool aid

I just read an article that made me mad, about the politicization of social distancing. It appears we liberals do it more than conservatives. It appears that it is an article of faith on the right that social distancing is a lib trick to bring Trump down and ruin the economy. Therefore, conservatives should keep their state open, go to church on Sunday, and keep on keeping on.

I am here to tell you that it is not in our interests that only conservatives get the virus, keel over, and leave this world. It is not in our interests for conservatives to bring it home to lib family members, either, or take it to the nursing home where they work. Some of these places are very sensitive, and one essential worker is all it takes - pretty soon everyone's got it, and it doesn't discriminate - it doesn't care about your political views.

i find it incredible that conservatives, as a bloc, would be more likely to value the economy over their health; I find that ridiculous, even. I also feel that the vast number of young people you see at the beaches, and at virus parties - well, they could be either red or blue, as recent tracking shows. I have heard some people say that they don't care if all the Trumpers just go to rallies and give each other the virus. But I find that ridiculous too. Why would we want anyone to get the virus?

I call on everyone to do the intelligent thing and don't get the virus. Then do the intelligent thing in November so that we can get out of this mess. But finally, stop looking at health itself as political - if you have to do something stupid just in order to prove your ideological worth, you are hankering for the wrong ideology. That's kind of like taking kool-aid, now, isn't it?