Triage

What is the difference between that train wreck in the state of Washington a few years ago and the state of life in America today?  

Answer: Nothing. Let's pretend we are the triage nurse for both cases (Triage: in medical use it is the assignment of degree of urgency to wounds or illness to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.)

Train wreck: Never mind why the train left the rails. Who is injured and who needs first attention?

Coronavirus America: Never mind where it came from, how do we stop it spreading and who needs immediate attention?

Train wreck: Why did this happen and what do we need to do to stop it from happening again?

Virus America: Where did it come from and how do we stop more coming?

Train wreck: What role did the engineer play in the wreck?

Virus America: What role did the engineer play in the trai...er...pandemic?

Train wreck:  Is there some device that would have prevented the train wreck?

Virus America:  Is there some potion that would cure this plague?

First let's acknowledge that our pandemic is much more serious than the train wreck but the triage steps are similar.  In the train wreck an incompetent, ill trained engineer took the train at 70 miles an hour into a curve designed for trains traveling at 35 miles an hour.  Also, a device existed that, if installed, would have prevented the train from going into that curve at that speed.

Like the train wreck, our engineer was not competent to address what needed to be done at the time it was needed.  We are still in triage step one:  taking care of the most needy.  But this whole shutdown of normal life has drawn a blackout curtain around an issue a hell of a lot more serious than the immediate inconvenience of this plague.  The looming threat of extinction of all life forms on this planet is real and, possibly, irreversible. In the current uproar over this latest novel coronavirus do you hear any voices that are taken seriously about the extinction of human beings from this planet? 

We are whistling through the graveyard,  people.  The natural disasters are going to get worse and I don't believe our so-called leaders are going to do anything more than to keep grabbing softer feathers for their own nests.  But it's not all on them.  It's on you and me and everyone else on this small planet. Winston Churchill once said (it's OK to listen to Winney because he's half American), "The best argument against Democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." If it's not them and not us doing anything to hold off Armageddon, that pretty much leaves the cockroaches and they don't care because they'll probably survive.

Keep washing your hands and follow the instructions of the triage nurse.