Protesters wanting to "Reopen" America risk lives

This post was published in the Wilson Times April 24, 2020

Barely a month into North Carolina’s “Stay at Home” order, protests are popping up across the country, including one in Raleigh that let to an arrest of one protester.

Protests in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Utah opposed restrictive executive orders that required residents to stay home and ordered businesses and schools to close. All these restrictions are aimed at containing the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected nearly 7,000 people in North Carolina and killed more than 40,000 in the United States, which now has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths of any nation.

Protesters are making two arguments against the anti-pandemic orders that have been effective, scientists and medical experts agree.

The first argument is that the executive orders have ruined the nation’s economy. Many small businesses have shut down because of lack of customers (who are staying at home as ordered) or inability to obtain merchandise or needed equipment because of travel restrictions.

The second argument is that governors’ executive orders violate citizens’ constitutional rights.

The First Amendment guarantees the right to peaceably assemble, and the Fourth Amendment protects a right to privacy. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments allow limits on life, liberty and property only after due process of law. But the Constitution allows state governors to issue orders to protect the health and safety of the population. As I have written before, no constitutional rights are absolute. Your right to practice your religion will not allow you to engage in human sacrifice.

These confinements are supported by constitutional scholars and by epidemiologists. Although the restrictions may be extremely inconvenient and disappointing (as travel plans, family reunions, graduations and other events are ruined), stay home rules, “social distancing” and other measures are the best defense the states and whole nation have to prevent illness and death, experts at the Centers for Disease Control say. Polls show that about two-thirds of the public support measures to contain the virus, despite their harm to the economy.

The Washington Post and other news sources have identified a number of right-wing Republican groups and conspiracy theorists who are supporting or igniting the protests. Even President Trump, who had endorsed the very measures the governors imposed, reversed course and tweeted “Liberate Michigan,” “Liberate Virginia” and “Liberate Minnesota.” “Liberate”? Is he advocating violent overthrow of duly elected governors?

The virulent protests are dividing the populace into two camps: those who are willing to risk the lives of others for their own convenience and those who think their personal inconveniences and economic sacrifices are worth it to prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of others.

At a time when national unity and global cooperation are needed, the protesters and their cheerleaders are endangering everyone — your family, your neighbors, the elderly, the vulnerable. This pandemic has shown its deadly ways can afflict anyone.

Pandemic will end, but we'll be different

This column was published in the Wilson Times April 4, 2020.

The Corona Virus COVID-19 has changed our lives, our culture, our habits, our relationships and our economy more than any other event in my memory, and it’s not over yet.

The threat is real, despite what some non-scientists might say. The Trump administration estimated this week that COVID-19 could take 100,000 to 250,000 American lives.

But one day the spread of the contagion will succumb to medical and scientific efforts to quell the spread of the disease. People will go back to work. Students will go back to school. Members will attend church services within the holy places built for those services. “Social Distancing” will be largely forgotten. Our hands will not be washed quite so frequently.

But things will have changed, and we will not revert to life as it was, ante-pandemic. After months of avoiding direct contact with another human being, of staying away from social events, of diverting to “virtual” experiences and events, how soon will we be able to be our old selves again? After seeing empty shelves in our favorite stores, will our minds be persuaded to hoard bottled water, toilet paper and candy?

Will restaurants, forbidden to serve customers at tables, survive on less profitable carryout meals in foam trays and plastic bags? Will patrons forget the pleasures of being served by a thoughtful staff in a pleasant dining room, or will they conclude that carryout meals taste just as good at home? Will the wait staff, unable to survive on unemployment benefits, still be available?

Perhaps the most profound changes post-pandemic may be felt in churches. With gatherings of more than 10 people forbidden, churches have, in most cases, canceled their Sunday services and other events; they have redirected members to online church services held in empty sanctuaries or pastor’s homes. For some people, the virtual service will be sufficient, and it’s so much more efficient. For members of liturgical churches, accustomed to observing the Eucharist, the central sacrament of the church, each week or more often, will welcome the return to the bread and wine with its spiritual presence of Christ.

Once the habit of attending church and supporting the church with donations in the offering plate, will people assume their old habits, or will they drift away from churches, extending a trend among major denominations over the past 75 years?

Likewise, schools that have been forced to do much more online are likely to continue to shift more and more courses and instruction to virtual classrooms. This will affect teachers and other school employees and will have a large effect on local and state budgets. Done right, this transition could make schooling better and less expensive.

But if elected officials see only an opportunity to cut costs, education will suffer. More spending will be needed in internet access and bandwidth to ensure that all students can attend online classes from school or from home. The UNC system boasts 50,000 online courses, most having started before the pandemic.

Schools may be tempted to replace curriculum with digitally centered courses, but classic literature should continue to be taught. Shakespeare’s plays are 500 years old. Homer’s description of the Trojan War is more than 2,000 years old. Insights into human nature in both classics are relevant today.

The opportunity to update education is just one benefit from the pandemic. Another is the public’s reluctant discovery of walking as exercise. I am seeing many new faces walking in my neighborhood. You can’t go to the gym, shopping is no longer entertainment, and you can’t travel much. But you can walk, and walking includes nature, neighborly conversations and improved weight control and physical fitness.

With luck and vigilance, we might see preventive measures eased in the fall or early winter, but we will all have to accept how much has changed and realize the virus could make an unexpected comeback.

Hal Tarleton is a former editor of The Wilson Daily Times. Contact him at haltarleton@myglnc.com.

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Corona Virus shutdown looks like an apocalypse

The NCAA has canceled March Madness? The NBA has canceled its season? The Atlantic Coast Conference has canceled its 66-year-old basketball tournament, along with tournaments and scheduled games in all other sports? Major League Baseball is delaying opening day? Colleges and universities are canceling in-person classes and replacing them with online classes? Broadway shows are being canceled? The Masters golf tournament has been postponed — The Masters!

If these aren't signs of the apocalypse, I don't know what is.

The NCAA basketball championship game was played nearly 40 years ago hours after a failed attempt to assassinate the president, who was still hospitalized and in serious danger at tip-off.

This Covid-19 virus must be truly virulent to disrupt American life so thoroughly. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of this new disease to be a pandemic — a disease that endangers the entire world.

Although some irresponsible individuals in and out of government have attempted to minimize the dangers and impact of the new corona virus, top scientists in U.S. health agencies have strongly urged action to avoid spread of the disease. Without such actions, the rate of infection could grow exponentially, ultimately overwhelming the health care system as hospitals run out of beds, equipment and medicines. Each infected person is likely to infect more than two people they encounter. It's not influenza, which has a much lower fatality rate.

Because of a slow initial response by officials, the United States still does not have adequate numbers of test kits for the virus, allowing the virus to continue its spread. Although "Quarantine" signs have not gone up on people's doors, as they did in earlier smallpox and polio epidemics, limiting contacts and practicing good hygiene are essential to preventing a far greater crisis.

Covid-19 is said to be especially hazardous for people 65 and older, especially those with heart or lung disease or a compromised immune system. As an older-than-65 man with a not-noticeable heart condition, I am paying close attention to this corona virus. I'm not panic-buying Clorox or toilet paper, but I am washing my hands more often and more carefully than in the past.

I am also hoping for government leaders to be more transparent, empathetic, honest, scientific, prepared and trustworthy in the future.