Ready, set, let’s go, go, go back to work quickly

The Right Stuff - By Donald Holman

Here we are, just about to head into the month of May. Mother Nature is sending us the liquid sunshine, the grass is growing, the cows are calving, and things are looking good! If we can escape a late frost, it might be one of those years that happen every so often when we can have a little bit of success with our fruit trees. With all of the predictable beauty of a new summer opening up around us, let’s back away from the up-close view of our current health crisis; let’s take a broader look at what has been happening to us.

As you read this article, it was just about three months ago that our national nightmare began. On Jan. 31, President Donald Trump called a halt to one of the best-performing economies the United States has had since the days of Ronald Regan. So, we had President Trump with a booming economy and clear sailing to re-election. Boris Johnson had finally managed to extricate Great Britain from the clutches of the European Union, and, for the first time in decades, there was a resurgent attitude in European capitals towards independence. Think of all the trillions of dollars in spending globalization has allowed a very few to control. Now, it seemed as if all that was coming apart, and nations were thinking of going their own way.

Now, I am not inclined to believe conspiracy theories much, not because I don’t think a lot of folks would like to conspire to control the world but because events have a way of upsetting such planning. But if you were China, on Jan. 1, 2020, things were not going so well. You have a virus that is out of control and the lunar new year approaching when literally billions of Asians from all over the world travel back home to celebrate new year. The lunar new year celebration is a combination of Christmas, New Year’s, and every other holiday for Asians. If you think about it, the Chinese restaurant is always open on Christmas. But the lunar new year is when families re-unite and go house to house visiting and partying and having a grand time.

Did China deliberately allow the virus out of the lab? We will never know whether the virus was deliberately loosed upon all those visitors, or whether it escaped accidentally. Conveniently, those with firsthand knowledge are dead, their notes destroyed, their virus samples incinerated. What we DO know is that China very deliberately let the lunar new year go on without warning all of those visiting Chinese they were endangering their lives. And I, for one, believe they knew that to be true. But you can see that from China’s point of view, with the way the world was moving, this offered a chance to restart the game with a jump ball. And they probably figured they would rebuild better and more quickly than ourselves. (And they have; haven’t they?)

So, here we are, about to restart our economy. And have you noticed every time we find a bit of encouraging news, the various powers that be manage to quash it? We have these absolutely dictatorial governors who are making laws willy-nilly about which businesses can open and which cannot and their hours and their method of operation. And they all attempt to tell us that they are following the “science.” But are they? Let’s take two examples.

The state of New York has been requiring nursing homes to re-admit patients they sent out for treatment of the Wuhan flu. Here is the way Michael Goodwin, of the New York Post, reported it after noting it had never been asked of the governor: “That drought ended Monday when The Post’s Bernadette Hogan asked about the policy at Cuomo’s daily briefing. His answer was stunning.

“That’s a good question. I don’t know,” the governor said.

He turned to Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner, who confirmed the policy, saying, “If you are positive, you should be admitted back to a nursing home. The necessary precautions will be taken to protect the other residents there.”

No – they won’t. According to that same article, 3,448 residents of elderly care facilities die from the Wuhan virus. That is nearly 25 percent of New York’s Wuhan flu deaths. We all know the elderly are more susceptible. Those with the virus should have been separated! Where is the governor following science here?

So how much would you like to wager that New York’s high death rate has come from ignorant handling by a bureaucracy famous for its bungling than by any particularly high amount of people traveling through New York? California had between 5,000 and 8,000 per day traveling back and forth during the lunar new year holiday, but their numbers aren’t even close to New York’s.

And remember, New York was held up as the example to the rest of us of what could happen in our state. But maybe it could only happen in our state if we acted as ignorantly as New York did! And New York’s Democrat governor is held up as some kind of hero?

And school children. We have all known almost from the beginning that this virus is not affecting young children. Yet we are closing schools for the year? And we have people talking about “getting used to” remote learning for school children. Really?

What we should all remember going forward these next few weeks is that we need to act smartly but get our nation back to work. Every day we delay is a day we will not get back. And how many small businesses will fold every additional day we dilly-dally? How many farmers and independent businesses will die in Michigan because of their foolish governor who will be protected by the press because…Y’know – Democrat! Second verse, same as the first! Ignore the doomsayers that keep control of us by beating that drum! Study the facts and let them be your guide, but let’s get back to making money and making this country work – literally! The nation we save may be our own!