ONCE AGAIN WE HAVE BEEN SMILED ON

All this reminds me of when I was sixteen years old. Gasoline was cheap and I was grounded. I heard that from somebody on TV the other day. Here’s another one. The government wants to send me some free money and there’s no place to spend it.

As far as being relegated to staying home, that is not new for me. We pretty much are homebodies anyway. I have never been a fan of being in large groups. By the way, there is very little traffic now. That’s because there is no reason to be on the road. The reason gasoline is cheap is that nobody is buying any. Worldwide oil prices are in the toilet because there is a huge glut of unsold oil.

So what’s next? The President has some tough decisions ahead of him. When do we open this country back up? When do we decide that the cure might be worse than the disease? I heard Bill Bennet on TV this morning say that so far we have had about 20,000 deaths from this virus. Last year alone we had 61,000 deaths from seasonal flu and we had no restrictions and we didn’t destroy our economy. We have succeeded in scaring the daylights out of everybody and it may have been a complete overreaction. Of course hindsight is always 20/20. Unexpected deaths for any reason are sad and nobody is ever truly prepared to say goodbye to their loved ones. It is especially sad that most of these coronavirus deaths happened to folks who were alone at the time of their death because their families couldn’t be with them.

This is what's on the horizon. For pure economic reasons we will see the country back in business and probably within two weeks. At first there will be some hesitation because, among other things, we will still see new cases caused by this virus. We will certainly see deaths. But people are going to be headed to ball games, movies, and restaurants. Baseball season is underway. Spring football practice will very soon be up and running. The golf courses are empty and that never happens. 

Like everybody I was very disturbed by this virus. I practiced "social distancing". I would have even without the government telling me to. After all these restrictions are lifted I will still keep myself at a safe distance from others. I wash my hands a lot and always have. I didn't need the government telling me to or my local TV station teaching me how.

The most disturbing thing that happened during this "pandemic" however, was the ease and speed by which we, free Americans, allowed our country to become a dictatorship. Government officials suddenly decided they would dictate how we would live. Private businesses fell under regulation that would have made the communists proud. Our economy tanked in a matter of days. As a country we showed a vulnerability that I previously would have thought impossible. 

Some will say it was worth it. Others, like me, will suggest that we bide our time and see what happens. Will we recover? I don't know. How long will it take? Again I don't know. Was the cure worse than the disease? Only time will tell. 

This I do know. We had best get ourselves better prepared for incidents such as this in the future. The world, and that includes our enemies, is watching us. They are watching to see how we will continue to handle all this. 

As for me, I am thankful that Trump was in charge. I shudder to think how things might have been under certain other politicians. Pandemic or not, once again we have been smiled on. 

Ron Scarbro April 14, 2020