I have been in a funk after speaking to my neighbor last night. She's a lovely , 64 year old, bohemian Southern California leftist. I'm as far right as she is far left. I adore her and she adores my young children.
Last night it came to a head. She believes that Riverside County CA loosening their mask requirement and social distancing rules is too much. Every death to her is one death too many and all life should be protected, no matter the cost. She spurted out how many more have died than wars. I am a numbers person and reminded her how good our country is doing because the US population is more than Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the UK combined. Our death rate is significantly less. It was hard for her too fathom.
I mentioned how Sweden is expecting herd immunity, and she was dismayed by their death rate. I gave the exact figures of deaths per million and how it is 252 deaths per million to 328 deaths per million in the US. That is only about 25% less than the US and they are not slaughtering their economy.
She mentioned the children and I pointed out that a quick Google search showed that over 3000 kids get kawasaki illness in the us every year, so the number of Kids showing this "mystery" illness is right in line for how many would be expected to get it during this pandemic timeline.
She is a realtor, who has still been working, had had people in and out of her house picking up furniture, and was on her way to meet her liberal political group in the park. I don't understand why she thinks everybody else should stay home for her.
I expressed that people who need to can stay home. There is no promise of a vaccine, there is apparently doubt whether they can be made for upper respiratory infections. She was very quiet and I feel like this conversation may have hurt our relationship, but I am flabbergasted by the all-feelings, no logic group. I reminded her that people need to feed their families and pay for their shelter. Where is this money to come from? Oh, I couldn't resist a jab at how the media had no credibility because of all their lies, and how can you blame people for not believing the media hype.
My elderly, high -risk mom lives with us. I know I need to be cautious for her, but we don't expect everyone to lose everything when she can stay home.
During every war there were people that wanted to stay home, no matter how justified the war or how damaging surrender would be they still claimed that the loss of one life was too much and we should stay out of it. You can’t change people like that. All you can do is be respectful, show them love and do the right thing regardless. Even during the civil war as the lives of millions of slaves in the balance, the democrats wanted to sue for peace and nominated McClellan for president to do it. McClellan didn’t even want to use his soldiers because some might be killed. Because of this more of them were put in danger and all gains were lost because of the inability to follow up on victories. But the country voted for Lincoln with the full knowledge of the carnage to come knowing that in the end it would be for good. Don’t despair, be brave and move forward.
Excellent reply.
Thank you for the history lesson! You are right, there is nothing I can do. It's hard for me to accept this is our new norm. I want to be like Sweden instead of this slow, painful course we are taking in California.