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Against Returning to Normal?
Many Twitter “blue checks” are panicked over a “return to normal.” While the coronavirus pandemic was barely a month old, the Delaware County (PA) Council posted a Facebook video conference with repeated references to the well-meaning but nauseating platitudes of the day, including our “new normal” and “we’re all in this together.”
My eyes rolled so far back that I could almost see my sinuses. This was not my idea of “normal.” And if “we’re all in this together,” why were we more divided than ever?
After all, we were ordered by Governors, exercising if not abusing new-found emergency powers (some of which remain in place) to practically shutter in place; restaurants, churches, schools, many work places, sporting events, practically everything except grocery stores, medical facilities, and Amazon deliveries. “Panic porn” spewed from corporate news outlets and on social media. Fourteen days to slow the spread has turned into a year to forget. And don’t get me started on masks, the debate over which migrated from “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask” to their becoming fashion items and the ultimate virtue signal.
Meanwhile, over 500,000 have died in the US alone. In addition, there have been serious health consequences, including an increase in suicides, from pandemic lockdowns. Some 30,000 have died from unemployment-related suicides. Nearly a quarter of Americans reported experiencing symptoms of depression. School closures have had an enormous and negative impact on children – especially minority children from lower income families. I could go on but it would be … depressing.
But now with nearly a quarter of Americans having been jabbed at least once with three vaccines developed in record time under Operation Warp Speed, coupled with a massive drop in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. You would think every American is cheering at the prospect of a return to some normalcy. Several states, led by both Republican and Democratic governors, are ditching mandates, travel restrictions, and capacity limits at restaurants – even mask mandates.
You would be wrong. Look at the number of “likes” on this Twitter post.
Yes, there have been some largely permanent, even positive consequences of pandemic-related shutdowns (certainly not for those losing jobs or businesses, or with kids who couldn’t go to school). Those lucky enough to have white-collar jobs at larger companies could work from home, and some employers discovered that many people were more productive. Traffic congestion around the world dropped. Housing purchasing and relocation patterns changed, as home sales jumped in suburbs and even small towns, even for larger homes. People began leaving crowded urban areas, reversing past trends. Low mortgage interest rates have obviously helped.
But for all those gains, millions have suffered from the inability to socialize with friends and family, especially those in nursing homes. Isolation kills. Zoom sessions have replaced conferences, meetings, and even family get-togethers. That’s helpful, but no substitute for the hugs and face-to-face interactions we took for granted before the pandemic. No wonder millions of Americans reported feelings of depression.
So no, I will not “like” Emily Renshaw’s tweet. I still do not celebrate or accept this “new normal.” Further, I reject these calls to keep us shuttered – reverse panic porn in fear of returning to normal.
On a recent drive from Pennsylvania to northern Virginia, I encountered something I had not seen in awhile – traffic. At rush hour. And it wasn’t construction or an accident. And my first thoughts and feelings? Optimism and hope. I celebrated. I celebrate schools reopening. I celebrate the ability to attend church services in person again. I celebrate capacity restrictions being lifted on restaurants and other retailers. I celebrate people returning to work, without fear. I celebrate crowds returning to NHL games. I will eventually celebrate ditching my masks so I see people’s faces and smiles again, without having to strain to decipher words spoken through two or more cloth layers. I will even celebrate putting on a suit and tie (if it still fits).
I will even celebrate being able to attend funerals again. My father, who died as the pandemic began to rage, never had one (he did not die from COVID).
I will celebrate the ability to shake hands (sorry, Dr. Fauci), and hug friends and family. No more elbows and fist bumps. I will even look forward to being stuck in traffic and hunting for parking on my way to make a presentation at a conference. I will not miss Zoom, Google Duo, Microsoft Teams, Citrix, or all those other virtual online tools, although they will still have a place in our “new normal.”
Oh, sure the coronavirus and its variants and successors will be with us forever. We have pandemics of one kind or another about every 10 years, it seems. Our last one was in 2009. This one was worse, obviously, but still pales in comparison to the 1918 Spanish Flu. I do hope our public officials spend some time investigating what we did right, and wrong, and whether we overreacted. In some cases, the prescription may have been worse than the cure. Time will tell.
But for now, Emily Ramshaw and her followers can enjoy their permanent, fearful, shuttered lifestyles. I for one celebrate our rapidly approaching return to normal. We all should.
Published in General
Dear Emily,
I understand. I can’t count the number of times, before I retired, that I wished I could simply embrace my inner slob, stay in my jammies, eat $800-per-scoop ice-cream straight out of the carton all day, and do whatever I felt like, whenever I felt like it. But life intervened, and that wasn’t an option for me. Nor, had I had one, would it have been a particularly good and healthy lifestyle, or set a particularly good and healthy example, for a young child.
As a matter of fact, what you’re describing isn’t an option or a lifestyle choice for many women. I see, from your Wikipedia entry, that you’re sensitive to the plight of your fellow women (can I say that?), and that you have founded a news organization “reporting on the ongoing fight by American women for equality in all aspects of society.” Good on ya. Excelsior!
Perhaps you could enlist in that continuing battle by getting a job as an Amazon Prime driver, and support your sisters-in-arms by delivering luxury comestibles to the gated communities in which they serve, and which they don’t care to leave.
Just a thought.
Love,
She
I’m not surprised at the hanger’s-on who cannot let go of this crisis. It’s just like the Global Warming crowd. Many people who have no religious beliefs (mostly democrats) need desperately to believe in something important. A purely material universe with absolutely no significance is too depressing to contemplate. These crises are the perfect outlet for their emotional needs. If the Pandemic goes away they will have to go back to their old meaningless lives.
The Branch Covidians are probably the same people who read Huxley’s Brave New World and think, “Gee, this sounds nice!”
You’re either with John the Savage or Mustapha Mond. They’ve chosen Mond. I stand with John.
“Branch Covidians!” I love it!
Or they read The Time Machine, and thought the life of the Eloi looked pretty good.
Meanwhile, we Morlocks are still here. And we get hungry now and then.
I don’t know how to approach the topic because I think there are ways where saying “man I miss being able to go to the bar” that can come off sounding like one slept through the fact that about ~500k people died in about year.
That said, the general impulse should be to, as a nation, work for a world in which people can go to a bar because kids can go to schools and people can see their grandparents without fear of killing them.
I hope there is a strong political and social effort to push hard to reopen the country and not fall into the “well, I can stay in and work so maybe it isn’t so bad” trope like some of the people in the OP. (And I could actually do a good deal of work from home.) Other people are struggling and need to get back to work, and others need to begin to repair and restore relationships that couldn’t be sustained over Zoom. Kids need to be in school and around their peers. Just because video-conferencing lets certain institutions hobble along doesn’t mean we shouldn’t push to reopen.
The reason this happens is because we consume Media – anything that comes in on a screen – and increasingly consider that to be life. Real life. Instead of what it is, a narrow, highly colorful and flashy representation of a fantasy world.
The people who bring us this fantasy of brightly colored lights and peppy music, all those in the communication field, can for the most part perform their jobs from home, or in tightly controlled work spaces. They are not bothered much by a lockdown. They also do not have to strictly obey a lockdown, as they are the ones controlling what we see, and can bury their transgressions while hyping ours to the max. And that becomes “reality”.
The people they are most likely to cover – politicians, celebrities, white collar types, etc. – can all work from home with very little effort, chiming in occasionally with cute little stories about some minor inconvenience of other. So they all have no problem with the lockdown continuing.
Teachers, a powerful social force, all love the lockdown. They used to get summers off while the rest of us worked, now they get the whole year off. And maybe all of next year too, if they can swing it. Lockdown schmockdown, they’re still getting paid.*
So most of the people we hear from through the Media, and the Media themselves, all live lives where the lockdown isn’t only just no bad, it’s actually better for them in many ways.
* I wonder how a teacher would like it if he called my company to come and rewire their kitchen, and I said sure. Then I announced that because of Covid it would be an unsafe environment for me, so I was happy to take the job but of course I couldn’t actually come and do the work. But here’s a bill for $10,000 anyway, I’m sure you understand.
I’ve barely noticed that there has been a pandemic. I’ve not missed any work, we go out to lunch as usual, we don’t wear masks at work, and I only wear masks when I go onto private property where the owners insist I wear one.
Spoiled Floridians.
Also, not to mention half her list women were able to pull off before the pandemic – by choice and priority. What this woman left off was “and still collect a paycheck”.
I’d like a paycheck for reading my kids bedtime stories.
My hubby and I both lost our jobs last year, due to the decimation of the aerospace industry. I refuse to wear a mask anywhere it is not mandatory, except that our Dictator has made businesses responsible for enforcing the statewide mandate. They can lose their license if found harboring non mask-wearers (which I think is evil). I stood outside for 30 minutes this morning, in the cold and wind, waiting for my appointment to get the first of two doses of Wuhan Coronavirus vaccine. I was the only one in line not wearing a mask. And ahead of me in line, there were a half-dozen young, healthy teachers (our local unions have refused to go back to their classrooms). From my blog at RushBabe49.com:
https://rushbabe49.com/2021/03/06/the-economy-is-poised-for-a-roaring-comeback-except/
https://rushbabe49.com/2021/03/04/teachers-unions-killing-american-children/
Condolences on the jobs. But congratulations on the vaccine! Just got my first dose on Friday and didn’t have to wait in any lines at all.
I’ll second the condolences and say congrats to you all on the vaccine. That’s great. It’s starting to feel like this thing will be beaten rather than managed.
Who is Emily Remshaw?
Some folks are saying that they prefer to wear a face mask than make-up. For them, all the lock down carnage is worth it.
Hmmm. That’s odd. I’m a teacher, and I don’t love the lockdowns. And I guessed I missed out on the sweet deal where I could have collected pay this whole past year without working. I still was expected to work and teach during those months I was getting paid, and I do so. Teaching remotely, while definitely different in some major ways to in-person teaching, is still teaching. And lesson-planning, delivering instruction, grading, contacting parents, conferencing with students…it’s all still work whether you’re having to physically go to campus or not.
I will say that the past year of remote teaching was easier on me- less stressful, not as time-consuming- than in-person teaching. But I recognize it was not ideal for most of our students, so I’m very happy to be back to teaching students in-person here in Nevada. We’ve been doing a hybrid model at 50% maximum capacity for in-person for the past several weeks, and next week will start teaching up to 75% capacity in-person, which is great. I do miss being able to mute students to ensure lessons don’t get derailed by the clowns, but I know it’s way better for most of the students to actually be physically around their peers again and have their instructor physically present in the room with them.
I get that Teacher’s Unions are very left-leaning and many if not all have pushed against reopening schools. I also would agree that many teachers can be self-aggrandizing and melodramatic about the challenges they face, and that there are many teachers who don’t want to return to in-person teaching.
But we’re not all just one monolithic group, and believe it or not many teachers are hard workers who really are passionate about teaching kids and doing right by them, and many are excited to teach in-person again. And resistance to schools reopening is not all driven just by teachers and lefty politicians. When my middle school started doing hybrid teaching, a pretty big chunk of parents elected to keep their kids full-virtual.
Anyways, I get conservatives’ general frustration with the education establishment, but I’ve come to feel that listening to a conservative talk about teachers is like listening to a BLM member talk about cops.
You are the exception, it seems. Thank you.
Maybe because our country wasn’t designed to have a federalized education establishment. They keep taking our money, or our future’s money and use it to control us. Controlling what children are taught is a fundamentally unamerican proposition.
But, see, I don’t think of myself as the “exception.” I just feel there’s more variety in teachers’ politics and attitudes than many conservatives think. I do think that a lot of conservatives’ critiques of the education establishment and leftwing bias in education are legitimate, but, again, teachers are not as monolithic a group as they are often depicted.
I lean towards the notion that it’d be better to not have a federal department of education (along with many other federal agencies), although unfortunately I don’t think it’s likely that we’ll ever see it abolished. But even within the flawed model we have, I do think there’s still a lot of good people doing good work.
There were a lot of good people helping Uncle Joe Stalin, too.
Do you think our country is the equivalent of the Stalin-era Soviet Union?
Mrs. C is a teacher at a private school and has been eager to be back in school with students which will happen, we hope, by the end of this month.
The toll on the students is terrible. The isolation and lack of contact is very hard for many students. They need to be in school.
If we were to cast blame in this direction, it would be to the teacher’s unions, who are looking out for their power and influence and care little about either the real views of the teachers they represent or the students those teachers serve.
Yes. I think cancel culture, social justice warriors, global warming/climate change are all soviet style methods of taking control over nations, and progressivism is a euphemism for communism. They aren’t even trying to hide it much anymore. If we don’t stop them, we will be very much like the USSR.
https://nypost.com/2021/03/06/nyc-mom-enraged-teacher-played-rap-videos-during-zoom-economics-class/
I remember expressing frustration and desire to open up late last spring, and finding instinctive pushback from many of my peers. There was safety in the mask. Safety was good. You sensed an evolving shift to a new paradigm built around the introvert and the stay-at-home types.
What are the numbers? What percentage of teachers (I suppose by state) doesn’t want to return to a formal classroom setting, and what percentage of parents want or need their children to return to school?
Well maybe among some couples one will stay home and keep things clean, take care of the kids, read, maybe earn a little on line. How awful.
Not yet.
I saw an outside flea market last Sunday in the parking lot of a nearby church. It was great to see, particularly as I live in a Maryland suburb of D.C. that has been playing it ultra safe.
I really appreciate @knotwisethepoet’s contribution to the conversation. The return of students to the physical classroom environment is going to be a tough test in many ways. It would be nice if the only disturbances in classrooms and hallways arose from good natured clowning. We know that’s not true. So his comment about missing the “mute button” is insightful.
A return to normal may be more than simply a return to previous stress levels for many, including teachers, perhaps even especially them. A lot has happened in governing circles since last March and “bad attitude” scales new heights every day.
I look forward to hearing more about the return experience from the “poet.”
Thank you for this post. I had the same realization yesterday after sitting through our latest PTA Exec Board Zoom meeting and hearing a couple parents talk about their concerns about COVID. One mom chastised her friends for wanting to get together after returning from travel and not self quarantining, and another asked why her son’s soccer team wasn’t getting tested weekly for COVID. I live in Los Angeles County, which was hit badly by the winter wave, so I get it, but this just does not reflect the reality of here and now. Cases are down 90%. Hospitalizations are down 85%. 25% of the state population has had at least a first dose of vaccine. We’ve had the lowest average case rate since the pandemic started. Things are getting better and it’s time to celebrate the improvement and be hopeful again. We need to begin the process of getting back to our old lives.