The Coronacation Diaries, Episode 31

Most of Us Did Not Protest

I don't want to write about #operationgridlock/#openmichigan. I really don't. I don''t want to give them any more of my day than they've already gotten. My entire Facebook feed is full of misspelled signs and Confederate flags and Call of Duty costumes and big guns and traffic jams for miles. Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine are patting themselves on the back for sitting in their cars in traffic jams all day long, and now spinning conspiracy theories about what might happen if COVID cases spike in two weeks. Michiganders Against Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine are wringing their hands over the irresponsibility of the lack of social distancing, lack of protective masks, blocked hospital entrances, and the complete disappearance of any regard for the health and well-being of anyone in our state. And the rest of us? We are all just shaking our heads in disbelief and embarrassment about all of this ridiculousness.

But what else am I going to write about? I'm stuck here in the living room. It's too cold to go outside and it won't. stop. snowing. The dog hasn't had a walk in days. I haven't had a walk in days. I'm also pretty sure I haven't changed my clothes in days, or brushed my hair in days, so it's probably for the best that I just remain here on the couch, where I've pretty much been all day, stuck in an inertia of cynical dyspepsia.

I know that the morons risking the lives of their kids and wearing adult diapers and clogging up the roads in order to shake their fists at the Governor for trying to save their lives do not represent the majority of us here in Michigan. There are 10 million people in Michigan. There are only a few hundred thousand members in their ridiculous Facebook group, and only a few thousand showed up today to protest whatever they thought they were protesting. A huge majority of us actually believe that staying home saves lives, and that giving up a few things we love to do for a few weeks is an okay price to pay if we can flatten the curve, give our health care professionals a chance to breathe, and shut down this virus.

I know that the numbers are on our side. There are way more of us than them. Most of us wouldn't be caught dead with a Confederate flag, let alone wave one in front of the Capitol in Michigan, a state well above the Mason-Dixon line. Most of us wouldn't drag our kids out, unprotected, accepting candy from strangers. Most of us recognize that this is not "just the flu" and that building a herd immunity from getting infected really isn't the point when the Coronavirus death rate in our state is at 6%. Most of us wouldn't lay on the horn for hours in front of the hospitals where very real people are sick and dying of very real causes. Most of us would never jump to the conclusion that the Governor said that we can't buy American flags in our State when we see them roped off; most of us would instead realize that it is the massive garden centers where the flags are located in the massive 50,000 square feet stores that have been roped off. Most of us already know how and where to buy our plants and seeds and have them delivered or picked up curbside, and most of us wouldn't care for a few more weeks anyway, since it's. still. snowing.

Most of us, when faced with the choice between taking on a little discomfort to ourselves versus potentially exposing others to great harm would choose the former with very little hesitation. Most of us believe in freedom, and we freely choose to conduct our lives with empathy and understanding towards those who may be in harm's way.

Most of us will do our best to continue to act in ways that will not cause harm to others. 

Most of us care about more than ourselves.

We are most of us.

Photo by Mish Vizesi on Unsplash