Our community is not all that large but we are taking steps. The city council has passed an ordinance closing all schools and closing daycare for all but children of first responders and other emergency services. No more than two may gather on city owned property (sidewalks, bike trail and the like) and no public gatherings of larger than ten people--yes that means churches too, no on site alcohol sales, take out dining only with employees required to have their temperatures taken and tracked. The only businesses open to the public are pharmacies and grocery stores, all required to allow for social distancing. City Hall and the Police Department are drive up window only; misdemeanors are handled with non-custodial arrests. There is a curfew from 9pm to 6am.
Everyone in the country is dealing with having a feckless idiot in charge and that lack of leadership puts us all on the back foot, but ours is not the only community in the state taking these steps. Communities are following form with state wide requirements set out by our governor.
These days, other than people out mowing their lawns in the morning, it is so quiet. The normal background noise of kids playing in the yard down the street: gone. Traffic is a trickle. Maybe the city could have done something sooner, maybe they could do a little more. But make no mistake, the community is not ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away. We are fortunate enough to have a fine hospital here that serves the entire county. Sadly, there are coronavirus patients. At least one has died. It's very sad, was likely preventable as so much of this nightmare was. It didn't have to be this way for any of us.
It's easy to point fingers and blame the other, but now is not the time. If it bleeds, it leads: you're hearing loud noise about the worst of us with very little coverage of the rest of us because the noisy people get better ratings. The rest of us really are doing the best we can to take this seriously and deal with it responsibly. Now is not the time for picking sides for the political dodgeball team. We as a country need to try to be better than that.
We really are better than that.
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