We are still well. No signs of the virus. We remain engaged with life – reading, napping, communicating with others, using our brains, writing blogs, and exploring movies and concerts online. All of this keeps us alert and involved with others.
Yes, we keep up with the news, but that is hard to do objectively these days. Too many people shouting their beliefs in direct opposition to mine, or yours. I tune them out. If they make cogent, logical statements, then we can communicate. Otherwise, not.
The press plays many roles. One is reporting events that have happened. Later, when investigations are complete, the reasons for the events ought to be provided. If causation is in dispute, layout all of those points of view. Do not provide your hunch to the mix unless you are truly providing research and source material that has authority in the issue at hand. Otherwise, maintain professional silence.
The press should not be a player in the making of the news UNLESS someone is found creating the news for their own benefit at the expense of others. That is when the press needs to be investigative and critical in its questioning of the principals in the matter. In fact, that is the role of maintaining an honest government serving the long term needs of the people. A free and open press is an important check and balance to government at all levels.
Modern press machinery includes specialized branches of news reporting – sports, financials, medicine, arts and entertainment, education, technology, sciences, politics and government, and much, much more. Taken separately, these news ‘departments’ often make news of their own. One headline Monday of this week: This is America’s Week of Economic Reality. Really?
Look, we have a natural disaster occurring around the globe. It is affecting the United States currently. We saw it coming, experienced the early effects, and now we are engaged fully with the brunt of the epidemic. It is real. It is uncomfortable. It is lethal.
While that is going on we make natural adjustments to how we live to survive the pandemic. Some of those things affect functioning of government, banking institutions, the economy, sports, and arts and entertainment. And education. That does not include the shutdown of our brains and bodies.
The pandemic has its effect on our bodies and our social institutions. That’s a reality. Whatever happens we will survive, or most of us will. The rest of the fallout we will deal with as it happens. Like we always do.
Keen minds and hearts will navigate the choppy waters throughout whatever happens. Like getting over a hurricane or tornado, we clean up, clear away, reorganize, and rebuild. Same with the economy. The equipment is still here. The people are still here. Intelligence and experience remains aplenty to reassemble working models of the economy. All will be back to a new normal soon enough.
What that normal will be depends on how we use this pivot point to invent new and better routines for our nation and people. We are all a part of that. We all play a role in that.
All that remains is our stepping up when the time calls us.
March 31, 2020
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