The Day the World Stopped

It’s an unprecedented weird time in history when you have the first national ban on assembly ever in the United States. This is step one of martial law and we should all take note of that. It speaks volumes of what they are not telling us.

I agree, it sucks the thought of bedding down for a month and missing out on shows, life, etc but if we don’t all come together at this time (and our own place) and do this for a month this flu strain will keep passing from person to person and the probability of overloading the health system will grow exponentially.

They say we all know each other within 6 degrees of separation. So within you knowing a person who knows a person…you have a connection to Tom Hanks, or any other person with this flu.

I already consider myself as possibly infected seeing as the first case landed in O’hare back in January and the lack of test kits I think is keeping our numbers low yet. I am out helping the bands in my area every weekend with nwijam.com and I’m out among everyone and love being with people. I think we all like that connection and disconnecting for a month sounds like a momentous task because humans as a species are geared toward community and socializing.

I called my parents last night and asked that they don’t come by during this time since I consider myself as risky for having the virus due to being out in public on the weekends. I’m not a monster, my mom has an infection for life from a hip replacement and her immune system is compromised. This is the type of thing we’re trying to slow down. If you continue to go out, you should consider yourself the same and really think about the other people you visit when not out socializing.

Pearl Jam cancelled their tour on Monday before the government reversed course from “just go to work, live your life” with some pretty telling news from one of the hot epicenters right now:

“As residents of the city of Seattle, we’ve been hit hard and have witnessed firsthand how quickly these disastrous situations can escalate. Our kids’ schools have closed along with universities and businesses. It’s been brutal and it’s gonna get worse before it gets better, so we are being told that being part of large gatherings is high on the list of things to avoid as this global health crisis is now beginning to affect all of our lives.” – Pearl Jam’s statement posted to it’s website Monday.

The government had a plan in action since Wednesday to calm the public speaking to businesses, the NBA, NHL, MLB, Disney, and many others were cancelling seasons or closing losing not only billions for themselves, but the employees that rely on that income to live working as food workers, ushers, etc. That’s a heavy decision for anyone at the top of those companies or franchises. I don’t believe it was done as a knee jerk reaction, it was done because the reality is the virus is here, we just don’t know how bad yet and based on the map spread, more numbers are coming as tests become available.

By Thursday schools were issuing memos to parents and students to take home all materials needed to study. Businesses that can utilize telecommuting were doing the same and bringing their employees home before Friday.

Then Friday came and the news media had psychologists on and how to prepare for a month at home prior to the national emergency announcement. This was all a well orchestrated shutdown of everything making sure the public was on their way home and not where a crowd panic could happen.

Now (March 14th) there are talks that some people under 20 may have the virus and never show symptoms making them a carrier to anywhere they go. These are the most dangerous types since they are never diagnosed but spreading the virus constantly.

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I lived through a disaster in ’93 in Des Moines when the city flooded. Downtown was under martial law, no one out after dark, limited assembly, things got weird (like living through The Purge) with no grocery stores, restaurants, or other businesses open, but the threat was visible and martial law was put into place not to protect the citizens, but to prevent mob mentality of looting and riots. If you needed a police officer for someone that was shot out in the middle of the street, it took them 4 hours to show up (witnessed this myself).

Prepare yourself for the stores to close, transportation to stop, and even possibly the water to stop if people get too sick to work. For this event I’d make sure you can last a month so include things like yeast if you need to make bread even.

I get it, we live in a “me and mine” generation and “I’m not letting anyone infringe on my rights” but this virus doesn’t care about your feelings or your beliefs or rights. In a way it’s the Earth’s way of cleansing itself of it’s infection – humans. We worry about this one now, but what about the pathogen frozen in the ice caps that took out the dinosaurs?

Can’t we come together as humans for once and realize there is more to this than they are telling us and bed down in place to alleviate the potential of overloading the health systems when the cases start spiking? This isn’t necessarily going to stop the spread, but it is going to help the health system be able to process us because we’re all probably infected already and the health systems will be forced with the choice of who gets treated and who doesn’t when it gets to overcapacity. Is that what your freedom is worth? Someone else eventually not getting treatment because you were too selfish.

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With that being said, let’s look at what we can do while staying separated.

• Spring Cleaning the house – crack the windows and let some fresh air in. German’s have a habit of “Frische Luft” (fresh air) and cracking windows even in the winter to get the stale air out of the house. Fresh air was also observed as greatly helping during the Spanish flu in 1918.
• Spring Yard Cleanup – I was already working on this last weekend
• Go for a hike – I don’t think you have to stay boarded up inside you just need to stay away from others. Hiking is great just stay out of larger groups. Make your group those you are living with.
• Go for a bicycle ride (just try to stay of narrow roads for my sake).
• Look at all those 99% done projects around the house that you might be able to finish with the extra time.
• Catch up on your DVR (though I haven’t watched TV in awhile myself).
• Netflix and chill with your significant other.
• Relax for once, there’s not much more we can do right now and we’re a society that’s always on the go.

Let’s just try to remember we’re all in this together on this little blue ball in space.