Weary Pilgrim – Coronavirus Vol. II

Hope you are all bearing up – it sure is a strange time – if you don’t have financial worries, you know someone who does. And before long, if you’re not sick, you know someone who is.

I’ll bet a lot of you have these same thoughts:

–Can’t get enough of Dr. Fauci. Period.

–Where the Hell did Andrew Cuomo come from? Where has he been? According to Maureen Dowd of the Times, he has been a human hammer who views others as potential nails, but the Virus has wandered into his orbit, and it’s a perfect match for his skill set. Now the Virus is the nail – and Cuomo is a Hell of a hammer! I am transfixed by his press briefings. His speech to the National Guard members being called up last Friday sounded like Patton before the Battle of the Bulge. Pundits are asking each other if there is any chance we can swap Biden for Cuomo – poor Joe Biden can’t get any hang time with the national press, and Cuomo is so popular, Trump changed the timing of his own press conferences so as not to compete with Cuomo’s. The amazing thing about the New York governor is his mixture of empathy and science. His embrace of data is a fresh breath of air – it’s possible that his fear of New York being overwhelmed is out of proportion to the truth – but don’t bet on it. And planning for the worst is exactly what we need. Keep your eye on this guy.

–It drives me nuts watching Trump’s briefings where everybody is 4 inches away from each other. Political Distancing. Watch Cuomo – watch Charlie Baker – watch EVERYBODY but Trump. Does he have no idea what message it says to those who take guidance only from him?

–I have a friend who runs a local hospital – I asked him how it was going last week – he said, “ I feel like a general before a battle who doesn’t have enough soldiers, and doesn’t have enough weapons - and I don’t know how big the enemy is.” When this is over, we are not going to forget these people.

A prediction: there will be a new word in our lexicon in a few weeks: something like ‘’Munie’, meaning someone who has survived the virus and is now immune. As more and more people recover from the virus, there will be a consensus that they should be returned to the work force – and also be allowed to congregate – restaurants will open for them, they will engage in sports, and so on. My guess is that they will self-identify – armbands are not the most welcome identification badge, so I’m guessing bracelets or hats – and most certainly there will be a color – purple is up for grabs, I believe.

Posse Comitatus……look it up…..as phrases like ‘mandatory quarantine’ pop up, the principle of Posse Comitatus will be all that stands between us and our darkest fears.

Strange times indeed….we miss all that we had yesterday, and we know there will be a better tomorrow, but for now all we really have is each other. Works for me.