The Enemy We Face

The Washington Post news alert dinged on my phone. I knew it was bad. It is highly unlikely that a news alert bares good information. I know there is not going to be good news for a while. More Americans have been killed by COVID 19 than were killed on September 11, 2001. In fact the White House recently stated that the coronavirus pandemic could kill as many as 100,000-200,000 Americans. Twenty times the number of people who died almost 20 years ago. It got me thinking about the type of enemy we are facing versus the enemy Americans were presented with after 9/11.

The 9/11 hijackers.

The War on Terror has cost Americans over 2 trillion dollars with over half of the cost spent on the war in Iraq. Needless to say the results have been quite mixed. The Center for Disease Control on the other hand has a budget of 11.9 billion as of 2018, or .006% of the cost of the War on Terror. Obviously there are state and local resources that pick up a lot of the tab but the feds will foot the largest part of this bill.

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 is like an inverted 9/11. The attackers who brought down four airliners were easy to identify and had a clear purpose. Our political leaders quickly expedited a reason for the attack: “they hate our way of life.” That was much easier to digest. We can defeat these terrorists if we continue living our lives.

But a virus? It virus has no ideology and couldn’t care less how Americans respond. Its sole purpose to find a host, infect it and continue to spread. While three thousand Americans did die a tragic death on September 11, the numbers of Americans killed after 2001 are quite small in comparison:

Over twenty years ago Al Qaeda operatives began planning an attack that spanned multiple continents culminating on September 11, 2001. The 19 hijackers killed 3,000 Americans in one morning. All whom were killed perished within a few hours of each other. But now those deaths slowly mount, day after day. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 completely caught our government off guard. Our biological enemy gave us plenty of warning. Government officials were receiving reports in January about our epidemiological adversary and yet were caught flat-footed. It was on the horizon and we had time to prepare.

We can’t shoot a virus. We can’t interrogate it and waterboard it. It just is. The real enemy we face is ourselves. Our own unbridled fear upon seeing empty store shelves and deserted parking lots. The panic and the uncertainty most of us cannot handle. Comfort has become our idol as our lives are thrown into temporary chaos. When I get anxious about all of this I sit down to write. Not for anyone else but just for me. This pandemic has forced me to sit alone and just think with nowhere to go to distract myself.

I think life is going to be better when this is all over. But is a long way off.

Fitz’s Tips for Staying Sane: Vol. 1

First off let me just say that I am not a mental health professional (although that is going to be a great field to get into in a few months…) However over the last few weeks I came up with a list of things I have been doing to keep my sanity during these unprecedented times. I will start posting about them every few days…

Remove the word “should” from your vocabulary.

There is really only one thing we SHOULD be doing:

“There are now only two groups of Americans. Group A includes everyone involved in the medical response, whether that’s treating patients, running tests, or manufacturing supplies. Group B includes everyone else, and their job is to buy Group A more time. Group B must now “flatten the curve” by physically isolating themselves from other people to cut off chains of transmission. Given the slow fuse of COVID-19, to forestall the future collapse of the health-care system, these seemingly drastic steps must be taken immediately, before they feel proportionate, and they must continue for several weeks.” (Story by Ed Yong.The Atlantic.)

So beyond flattening the curve I shouldn’t be doing anything else. During the first few days I felt plagued by the list of things I “should” be doing. I SHOULD probably turn off PBS Kids after hour number three. I SHOULD probably change out of my pajamas by 3:00 p.m. I SHOULD probably NOT sell off my stock before the markets tank because I am an elected official who serves a higher purpose than my own self interests…

I like to think of myself as a fairly productive person. So now with all this extra margin in my day, I can get SO much more done! Laundry needs to be done, meals needs to be planned, groceries need to be ordered, my garage needs to be cleaned and finally, I need to figure out this at-home learning stuff while keeping order in my own house However, this was the pre-pandemic way of thinking. After about two days of this new way of living I discovered there is nothing we are SUPPOSED to be doing every day.

If I had a spirit animal, it would be Theodore Roosevelt. And not because I claim to be as intelligent, ambitious or imperialistic. Throughout Roosevelt’s adult life he was a star on the verge of supernova. His energy and zest for new things had him reading entire books for breakfast and speaking several different languages (albeit very badly). I can relate to that to a much lesser extent. I rarely stay focused on one thing for long. I get an idea then latch onto it, disregarding what I was previously working on. This is why my conference period often goes off the rails. The social distancing and sheltering in place however, are forcing me to just sit. My mindset has always been “what’s next?” but the pandemic and social distancing is forcing me to stop. Amidst the chaos we have been given a gift: time. Time to just be rather than do.