Well, thanks COVID-19.  You are making things interesting, that’s for sure.

The stock market has been more exciting than any roller coaster, unless of course you have money in it.  France closed the Eiffel Tower.  Italy just plain CLOSED.  Here in the US, we have closed schools, cancelled concerts, and cancelled athletic seasons. 

In typical American fashion, there has been intelligent discussion at several levels of government, and of course grandstanded gasbagging from both sides at the highest levels.  I am not hoarding TP, but I can see the need based on all the crap flowing from the White House and the Capital.  Thankfully, some governors stepped up and got the ball rolling, and while the overarching impact from this whole thing is yet to be seen, it appears that more of us will survive it than not.  Despite the media’s best efforts and cries to the contrary, life will eventually get back to normal.  So, I’m not going to use this electronic whitespace to blast the government.  No one is perfect and at least some of them are trying.

I am instead going to make an observation.

It’s already happened (and may come more forcefully in the near future) that Americans are being told to stay home for the next few weeks.  Many will.  Some will do so out of fear and self preservation; others because they care more about the community good then themselves and see it as the right thing to do.  Either way, they are staying home and I applaud both groups for doing their part.

But we all know there are some among us who will say one of the following:

“I don’t need to stay in, nothing will happen to me.”

“I’m too important to stay home.”

“This is America, and the government can’t tell me what to do.”

To those individuals, I politely ask that you get over yourself, and less politely ask that you lay down in front of a large piece of moving farm equipment.  We no longer need you.

I grew up at my grandfather’s knee.  He, like pretty much every other male of his generation in the United States (and a lot of females), served in World War II.  They spent years away from home doing what needed to be done, and when (actually if, because 400,000+ didn’t) they came back they didn’t ask for much beyond the ability to go back to work and raise a family. They were men and women alike who belonged to a whole generation of people who knew that the preservation of the country and the community was worth more than themselves.

That’s worth repeating: they were people who cared more about the community, the country, the greater good (whatever you want to call it), than themselves.  Wherever they learned that from, we could use a whole bunch of it right now.

Society today seems to be creating a whole lot more of those who think “me, me, me,” than those that care about their community or their world.  Lots of people want free college; few of them will consider government service (military or otherwise) to attain that.  People ask what the government is going to do to help them, instead of what they should be doing to help themselves and those around them.  Volunteerism is being replaced by working extra hours to make more money to buy more stuff.  Mistakes are met with threats of lawsuits instead of forgiveness and attempts to work it out.   People are doing all they can when they can to feather their nest, screw the cost to their community or country.

Somewhere along the way, the generation that fought (and prevailed) in World War II, a selfless generation, was replaced with successive generations of more and more self-righteous, self-serving, and just plain selfish individuals who demand more and are willing to do less for the greater good.

So now instead of being good neighbors, we just make sure we have enough TP and bottled water and whatever else we think we need because we don’t know what else to do to take care of ourselves.  Instead of staying in because it might protect all of us, some of us will go out just because they want to and are too damn selfish to care about anyone beyond their little circle of turds.

It’s not too late.  We can use this as a wakeup.  Check on your neighbor, spend time with your immediate family, and for God’s sake stay home unless absolutely necessary.  Getting through something like this together means service and maybe some sacrifice across the board for the greater good.  This country used to know that.  Somewhere along the way we forgot.

I think it’s time to remember.