By Frosty Wooldridge
As of this past Sunday night, America suffered 755,000 Coronavirus cases and 41,000 deaths. For each death, a loved one feels shock, pain and horrific loss. Whether it’s a mother, father, child, friend, grand parent or someone in your community—we all face a national calamity. I, honest to God, break down in tears when I watch the national news. This is my country, this is our country, and these are our countrymen and women. This pandemic baffles me. How and why? What happened in Wuhan, China? What person gave this virus frivolous thought and let the “Kraken” escape upon humanity?
Since I am a baby boomer, I’ve witnessed a lot of tragedies around the world in the past 55 years of my adult life. I’ve seen opioid drug overdoses, suicides of our teens, 10 years of Vietnam war deaths, 19 years of Iraq and Afghanistan war deaths, car deaths, lung cancer deaths, heart attack deaths and the other hundred ways of dying. But this Covid 19 frightens me most of all because I can’t confront it. It’s going to kill more of us, maybe even someone in my family or me.
As I look at my father and mother’s photos in my office at the side of my computer, even though they have passed, I feel their presence with me daily to give me courage to face the day. I hope my siblings and their children remain healthy. I hope my two sons remain healthy.
Hopefully, you too, practice the accepted protocols for yourself and your family. We’re going to get through this, but it’s not going to be easy or pretty.
At the same time, we need to come to terms with the fact that this disease kills less than two percent of its infected victims. We face far more deaths in America from a dozen other maladies. Each day, 1,700 Americans die of heart attacks in the USA from being overweight. Another 1,600 die from cancer. About 1,200 smokers die of lung cancer every day, 24/7. They chose their early deaths via a lifetime of sucking on a cigarette. Diabetes kills over 85,000 Americans annually from choosing obesity. Another 40,000 driving deaths! Around 13 teens die from overdose of drugs hourly according to the CDC. Prostate cancer kills 45,000 men annually. Over 500,000 people fall off ladders annually resulting in hundreds of deaths.
Out 330 million people in America, Covid 19 may be tragic for that two percent, but we must come to terms with its minor death rate. In other words, if we fail to get back to work, we could see this entire civilization and its economy drop out from under us and millions would die from lack of food—once the food growing and distribution chain breaks down.
We may have to wear masks everywhere in public. We may have to home school. We may have to order out and pickup. We may have to zoom church services. We may have do everything differently, but must get back to work.
What other aspects of Covid 19’s onslaught of America come to your mind? Can you take a few minutes to think about what we are doing to ourselves as a civilization? What would you do to alleviate what our country faces?
Do you think it’s wise to import 100,000 refugees monthly into our country as per the dictates of our U.S. Congress? Do you think all those legal refugees at 1.2 million annually, streaming into our country continues as a positive? How about the diseases they carry or worse, how about their cultural proclivities for unsanitary living?
Can we absorb another projected 100 million of them? What will that do for “density” of our cities and “compaction” of our living conditions? Can our cities continue exponential growth forever? How does that endless growth equate to quality of life in our cities and communities as they explode out of their britches?
Hopefully, will you, no matter what your state or community, give serious thought to what our country faces and what your kids face if we remain on course? Do you think this pandemic stands as a canary in the coal mine?
Do you remember the adage, “If you’re going down the road and you realize you’re going the wrong way—stop, turn around and walk back to the beginning. Choose a new road that will get you safely to your destination.”
Do you think our country heads along the right road by importing 100,000,000 (million) foreigners to our ranks within 30 years? How do you think it will logically turn out? Do you think it’s time to change course? What actions will you take to help Washington DC change course?
© 2020 Frosty Wooldridge – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Frosty: frostyw@juno.com
