Guns, Geezers, and Graves

Several weeks ago, when the Covid-19 pandemic was really just starting to get public attention, my sister-in-law in North Carolina told us that she had gone to the hardware store to get some spring plants and that the place was overrun with folks stocking up on guns and ammo. I didn’t get the connection right away; after all, viruses are too many to shoot, even with high capacity magazines, and they’re reportedly hard as hell to hit. Then I saw with my own eyes the lines at the store in the small Southern Utah town where we were staying, and I saw the reports on state and national news from around the country; this run on weaponry was a real thing. It took awhile for it to soak in that these people were getting geared up to shoot one another rather than Coronaviruses. Bizarre as hell, but I get it now. The Trumpists are coming for me, and I’m scared (and armed). 

There is a growing movement out there, led by some conservative politicians and media personalities, that is selling the notion that the governmental response to the pandemic is “draconian”, that the death numbers are inflated, and that the economic fallout is going to be worse than the disease toll. They are cooking up the standard fare of conspiracy theories, blaming all current, past, and future Democrats, and getting the Trumpist legions all atither. (Draconian: This is a word you see more of lately. I wonder how many Trumpeteers looked it up when they saw it on some right-wing Facebook post; mostly I wonder how many needed to look it up, but didn’t bother.) 

There have been protests throughout the country where both the frightened and the fear mongering are gathering to press local, state, and national authorities to drop some of the measures that have been instituted to curb the spread of disease-- to get the economy going again even at the risk of allowing the disease to get a stronger foothold. (I understand that as this pandemic continues, maybe even gets worse, declines and rebounds, whatever the scenarios are, we, as a society will have some hard choices to make. I also understand that we’re not in a position emotionally, or from a knowledge standpoint, to be able to make those choices right now. We’re too close. We’re reeling). It should be noted that after a few days of declaring himself omnipotent and getting cross threaded with a bunch of governors and senators,  Trump backed off a bit and took a tone as close to conciliatory as he's ever going to be.  He allowed he would let the governors and state legislators set their own trajectories, and some of them unveiled plans to ease into reentry mode in the next few weeks.  Maybe this will help these folks cool off a little.  I'm hopeful.

I saw some guy protesting on a YouTube telecast the other day who said, “...they have no right...!”. This in regard to government stay at home declarations and so forth. Then he went on to say that if “the old folks” needed to quarantine themselves, so be it, “...we have a right...”. I want this clown and those of his ilk to know that they actually do not “have a right” to ignore emergency measures put in place to protect the public, even if they’re too stupid to see that the measures are protecting them as well. This is a clear example of the principle exhibited in the case where Oliver Wendell Holmes drew the free speech line at falsely shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theatre: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting FIRE in a theater and causing a panic. The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature to create a clear and 

present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.” They can protest all they want, and I’m sure they will. When the protests advocate policies that make it more likely for me, and people like me, to die a horrible death of suffocation-- I draw the line. 

My story is common enough to apply here. There are thousands in similar situations: I’m 67 years old, I have asthma, I have heart disease; I’m a Covid-19 high risk individual. With the aid of decent health insurance, some great doctors, family support, and a bit of hard work, I’ve been able to manage these conditions and lead an active and productive life. I figure I have eight-to-ten years where I can continue to have a positive influence on my grand kids, do a little community service, share some valuable experience, and hopefully do something to keep future megalomaniacs out of the Oval Office. To this protester on YouTube, to the people down the street who ignore the closure on the tennis courts, and to anyone who thinks they are special-- more valuable than I, more valuable than my wife--anyone who thinks we’re expendable, I can only say one thing: Go ___k yourself!