#350 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday May 13)
Good morning,
THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON A LONG TIME!
Today’s edition marks the 750th edition of Musings Beyond the Bunker (well, the first 400 were “Musings From the Bunker…”). It is pretty hard to believe that 26 months ago we were “locking down” for a pandemic, whose proportions, duration and severity were unknown to us at the time. What began as anecdotes of disease in China and Italy and on cruise ships crossed our shores and caught us unaware and unprepared.
When I started these Musings, it was with three goals in mind. First was warning people about, and chronicling, the pandemic and its ramifications—economic, physical, emotional, and mental—upending how we live, work, play, and educate our youth. Second was to document and comment upon the activities that challenged our democracy and rip apart our civil comity with misinformation, hatred, suspicion, and lives—and continue to do so. Third was to explore areas of common interest, ideas, education, fulfillment and distraction—in the form of books, music, movies, pastimes, sports, and poetry. Each of these three objectives continue to require our collective discussion, analysis and action. So the Musings continue and, as they have, the feedback from many of you has increased, enriching my life and, hopefully, those with whom I’ve shared your thoughts.
REMEMBER THE EARLY COVID DAYS?
Is it too early to be nostalgic about the early days of COVID? Thanks to the elimination of CDC funding for pandemic preparedness (sorry, Trump supporters, but this happened under your leader’s “leadership”), we were short on information, supplies of material, and other aspects of preparedness, response and safety. Hopefully we have learned from that experience and the inevitable next epidemic will be handled better.
Remember the fear of how the disease was transmitted? We were wiping down deliveries to ensure there wasn’t virus on Fedex packages. We were worried that staples like toilet paper and paper towels might be in short supply. Walking around the neighborhood was an iffy proposition, with people crossing the street to avoid each other. And going indoors was tantamount to joining the French Foreign Legion. It sounds crazy now but it wasn’t while it was happening. Hospitalizations were plentiful and health workers were overburdened. Vaccines were a far-off dream, notwithstanding the significant research into mRNA vaccines and the accelerated R&D. Who would have believed that the very vaccines we were praying for would be yet another target of disinformation and area of disagreement and vilification?
Here we are, over two years later and “sadder but wiser.” Most of us suffered minimal health episodes, financial disruption, and emotional cost. But as bad as all this inconvenience and not insubstantial cost, for many the cost was greater. One million Americans have died from this disease—placing this pandemic first or second, in terms of loss of life, among the greatest calamities in our history. And untold millions more died around the world. What we tend to forget is that, for each of the million people lost, there came immeasurable grief for their families and friends.
But no one is unscathed from the pandemic. Mental health issues, already extant prior to the pandemic, have shot up significantly. Loneliness, feelings of dread, and depression ran rampant through our population during and following the pandemic—but having the greatest effect on teens, college students and young adults.
Like the ripples in a pond, there are continuing repercussions from the response to the pandemic and the need to shore up our social safety net and our infrastructure. This has been exacerbated by increased demand and supply constrained by labor shortage and disrupted supply chains. And this has resulted in a temporary rise in inflation. While it is expected to abate within the year, the pain will be felt throughout society.
Finally, let’s remember some of the few positives coming from the pandemic. We spent more time with family (remember the “bubbles”?). We spent more time pursuing leisure activities and trying to learn new things. We learned that working from home could be productive and proved the five-day work week was dead. We learned that business trips were less necessary than we thought. Most importantly, we learned to value what we have and those with whom we share our lives. We learned the value of nature, a walk alone or with a loved one, and the changing of the seasons. And we learned the value of what we were no longer able to enjoy, anxiously awaiting the opportunity to return again to the lives we led, but a little more thoughtful and a bit more appreciative.
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN?
There is a game people play, recounting where they were when certain historic events occur—the assassination of JFK, the Challenger disaster, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Rodney King riots, the O.J. murder trial (particularly the “White Bronco” chase down the freeway), 9/11. Added to this will be the dates of our last trips prior to the lockdown, the initial days of the lockdown, and other bellweather moments of the pandemic. Where were you? What were you doing?
DEMOCRACY IN PERIL
We must remain vigilant. As minority rule continues and becomes more etched in stone, further inroads against our normal democratic institutions will occur. When over half of the members of one of our political parties believe that the last election was stolen, in the absence of a single piece of evidence to support that claim, we have problems. But perhaps more significant is that many of our chosen leaders further this lie, in appealing to the more extreme in their base. And as long as QAnon and related conspiracies continue to garner support, we should all be concerned.
I continue to believe that the more extreme elements on the right and the left are both dangerous, unreasonable, and unwilling to listen, much less compromise with, the “other side.” This will continue and grow worse. I fear for political violence and violence around each of the upcoming elections. Of one thing of which we can be confident, there will be those, absent evidence, who will not accept the election results. Many of them are armed; many have a plan; many are angry.
CLASSIC INSULTS
In the “old days,” people seemed more intelligent in their insults:
"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” - Forrest Tucker
"He has Van Gogh's ear for music.” - Billy Wilder
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But I'm afraid this wasn't it.” - Groucho Marx
Have a great day. I’ll muse about the Musings again when we hit 800!
Cheers, Glenn