When is too long not long enough?
On this Island of artificial time and enforced separation, we
have suffered through almost a year of stricture. We have masked and stood our
ground, waiting patiently for the scientific miracle that finally arrived, Then,
with less patience but more resolve, we have waited for the inevitable farce of
rolling that miracle out.
The ordeal has seemed forever, this year of solitude,
fraught with loss and sacrifice on everyone’s part. Finally, with the turn of
the new calendar page, we have started to see some glimmer of relief, the
faintest outline in the fog of a causeway that will lead us off the Island.
Will lead us home.
Now is not the time to lose patience or resolve. Now is not
the time to ignore the discipline that gave us this mere suggestion of relief.
Now is not the time to abandon the measures that are leading us forward.
But that is exactly what our so-called leaders are doing.
Texas and Mississippi are scaling back any emergency declaration, declaring
their states 100% open, well before anything of substance has changed. To think
that the global crisis can be beaten by sheer force of will, that we may “fake
the end of the pandemic until you make the end of the pandemic,” is both dangerous
and delusional.
No, I won’t be leaving my Island for the moment. It has seemed
like forever, but the only real forever, oblivion, lies ahead for those who
ignore the scientific truth. Too long, too soon. I’ll choose patience and hope
and what I know is the safer course.
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