It’s been a very rough and harrowing three weeks since both President Donald Trump and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker have
decried this stay-at-home order. And people have been listening too, to some
degree. Subway trains and buses are virtually empty, each time I’ve looked up
and noticed, while on nightly walks around my neighborhood. Chicagoans are
heeding the warning, as are most in our nation. Stay-at-home. Stay-cation. Stay-where-you-are. Stay-er. Stay-put. Stay-of-execution.
Reiterating, again, except for that daily walk the dog or
walk around the neighborhood by yours truly, I for one, have been heeding the
warning, except of course, when it comes to getting groceries/food or picking
up medicine or routine doctor visits. But I wondered how worth it, it’s been
when I have to go visit a doctor’s office, when the building in which the both
the clinic and specialized doctors are housed, has new house rules.
And as a result, there are fewer cars on the streets during
the day. Empty buses all day long through the late evening. Empty subway cars
and commuter trains, looking ghostly. Empty sidewalks, save for the occasional
dog walker, jogger or couple with baby stroller. All known forms of human life
indoors. Business conducted virtually. Internet overload. Hoarding is the new
norm.
Welcome to Covid-19,
World Pandemic 2020, where, as Marc
Smith, founder of Poetry Slam
might say, “rules are meant to be broken.” Or in some cases, rules are made up
as they go along, because they have no rules to begin with. Or the every
popular statement, until further notice.
Are people paying attention to that? Until further notice,
more than likely means, that there is no plan in place because no one bothered
to think ahead in case of a disaster, such as a pandemic sprang up. And even if
they had a plan in place, some places of business haven’t even practiced the
plan and generally ignored it until the actual event occurred.
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| The lake is closed |
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| Sid sports his mask from Chris Kondos Boutique |
But then you know, there are such disasters as
weather-related incidents as blizzards, tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes,
spewing volcanoes, windstorms and flooding. And then there are other sorts of manmade
disasters like fires, spontaneous combustion, world wars, mass shootings and pandemics.
And strangely enough, most people listen and obey, that is until pandemonium
breaks out, coupled with fear and paranoia and conspiracy theories a-plenty.
All brought to you by the 21st century. Haven’t people learned
anything yet?
One thing at a time though. When a business or someone
within in the business is instructed to tell you, “Until further notice, “ what the fuck does that even mean? It could
mean, that no one in upper management bothered to make a back-up plan in the
event of a major disaster.
More than likely they have, but not on the level of that one
had hoped they might have. And still I’ve been asking, what the heck does that
even mean? I still don’t know. Well, it’s all a matter of interpretation and I
can start with my own experiences, as most people can, but mine is as unique as
the next guy.
I attend smaller more approachable and personal medical
clinics, which is similar to the traditional free clinic. The doctors are far
more reasonable than a regular office doctor, that one has to jump hoops
through in order to get an appointment and even then, the appointment seems to
only last for 10 minutes or less.
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| Shane Bugbee sports his cool mask |
The traditional free clinic however, seems to have changed
all of that, meaning I get to see and have a consultation with a doctor far
greater than 10 minutes, more like 30-40 minutes, because the doctor’s time
isn’t totally eaten up by corporation HMO/PPO
paperwork.
Is going to a traditional free clinic any better than going
to a more corporate medical doctor with better connections to specialized
doctors and nurses? More than likely, yes, but since I barely get sick, though Covid-19 could change all of that, I
probably prefer this method.
Besides, people in this day and age are self-medicating
anyway and only seem to go to a doctor when it’s an extreme emergency.
Self-medicating includes the medical marijuana crowd, something I’m not privy
to speak about since I’m not a part of, though I am certain, friends of mine
can speak on and over-the-counter medication like aspirin, cough syrup, allergy
medicine, ointments, and medical supplies like bandages, and thermometers.
And of course, there’s the most traditional of all
medication. Advice from friends, family, Internet forums and social media.
Herein lie several challenges. Before my mom passed away, I always told her
when I was under the weather, she advised me on what to do or get. She always
felt empathic to my circumstance.
A lot of the time if I had a cold or flu, she recommended
crackers/saltines and hot chicken soup, which despite legal ramifications and
stereotypes aside, isn’t a tradition that didn’t start with the Jewish people,
but more than likely from Chinese tradition, as far back as the 1st
century, though like everything else, was adopted, hijacked, stolen or dressed
similarly to look like their own, which is perhaps why, in both modern and
contemporary times, the Jewish people are so closely associated with it. And
still, I could be totally clueless.
And most all of my friends have been helpful, offering me
lots of practical advice, which believe me is good for lifting my spirits up in
these unknown days of blah. My family, which now, due to circumstances
surrounding my mom’s passing nearly three years ago, consist of my younger
brother Benjamin and my dad. I talk
to Benjamin about one or two times a
week either by social media or by phone and that seems to be all right for now
and of course I speak to my dad nearly every night by phone.
My dad, since my mom’s passing, has certainly stepped up to
the plate, which I rarely saw during the time of my mom’s life. Not that that’s
a bad thing, but I guess since I relied more on mom than dad, I must have
hardly ever noticed it. Dad seems funnier, snappier and honestly cares about me
(not that he wouldn’t ever), although I do have to say that he nearly says the
same words every time I speak with him, “You woke me up,” to which I respond,
“Dad, my job as a son is to call you and wake you up.”
He cares a lot about my health and would much rather see me
healthy than unhealthy, which I’ve experienced many times over, especially
since this past winter, when I was struck with both strep throat and flu,
shortly before and shortly after I traveled to and from Punxsutawney,
Pennsylvania by way of Philadelphia and New York, to spend Uncle Mickey’s 70th birthday with Uncle Mickey and my friend, Grue,
who lives in Philadelphia.
And then there’s my friends whom I’ve been checking in with
almost everyday, from the ones in the almost immediate area, to other friends
from around the world, most notably, Denmark. Denmark, as many of you might
know, is like my second home away from home, besides New York, in the category
of favorite places to be and also, I’ve toured there three times since 2010.
Irony is as irony does, but one thing is for certain, in Denmark,
my friends are all the same, from grouchy callous Johnny Concrete, whom I asked if he was wearing a mask and gloves,
went nearly ballistic on me. “Don' t be bloody daft!” He screamed at me in an email.
Concrete’s approach seemed to have
soften up this afternoon (April 5), when he calmly asked me “how are you holding
up? What a difference a few days make.
Then, there are my friends Marcus and Elfie in Hemmed, longtime friends Pedro and Camilla in Aarhus, and Karsten in Harlev. They all seem to be holding up just fine, not
paying attention to the mainstream news as much and just carrying on with
everyday life.
They too, are receiving the national emergency texts like we
are here in the United States, except theirs are coming directly from the
Danish local police departments, as opposed to from their countries’ leaders,
since Denmark is a socialist country and is ruled by both a prime minister and
a monarchy (queen, prince, etc).
Upon reading about other countries methods in the news, it
is far worse. Enforcement of the law is serious business and authorities on the
prowl and in charge don’t hesitate to enforce the laws and ordinances on the
books and also, of course, apply the until
further notice plan.
In Chicago, for
example, mayor Lori Lightfoot closed
all lakefront property, including adjacent parks, the downtown Riverwalk, Millennium Park and quite a
few of the bike paths and trails. “It’s time to get serious folks, “ she was
quoted as saying in press reports. While most of the 50
states have stay-at-home orders, only yesterday on April 1, April Fools’ Day,
coincidently, Florida’s governor
decided well after three weeks into the pandemic, to do the same thing, luckily
for him, not as many people have fallen ill, compared to the epicenter of New York, followed closely behind by Louisiana.
Other countries such as the Philippines, have in place, their own law and order, which is if
people are caught outside gathering in groups of 10 or more, prepare to be shot
at by police. No questions asked. In Germany,
only two or less people can gather together. It was Denmark, however, that really seemed to lead the charge in the
beginning, when the entire country decided to shut down completely, save for
essential services including gas stations, medical personnel, police, fire, grocery
stores and restaurants, that offer pickup and delivery services. They also
closed their borders.
Other countries followed suit, including Holland, Norway, France and Germany.
Almost immediately, every European country fell in line, followed by other
continents and finally by North America.
President Trump imposed a 30-day travel ban to Europe with certain
restrictions.
The hardest hit countries it seems have been China, where the coronavirus began,
followed by Italy and then America itself. Cites big, small and in
between almost immediately adopted their own versions of lockdown. Primarily
we, as citizens have been asked to stay home and only go out as necessary. Those
who have jobs for the moment, work from home, for the 9.9 million plus workers
now unemployed, life is a bit of a struggle.
The good news, is that the U.S. Congress and the U.S.
Senate dropped their usual gripes long enough to work together and passed a
major stimulus bill to the tune of 3.2
trillion dollars that helps bail out the airlines industry, major
corporations, helps pay those out of work and provides a one time stimulus
check for all Americans and working families, those on disability, veterans and
everyone else for that matter. Quite frankly, this bill covers all its bases beautifully.
Although checks are scheduled to be sent out by mid-April (2020), rumors have been
spread that checks may arrive as late as December. To be honest, rumors don’t
help anyone. All rumors do is fan flames and spread panic and fear and paranoia
and worst of all, panic buying. That’s just plain wrong.
But what about all of the existing mental illness disorders
that will rise out of the ashes as a result of this pandemic and be returned
onto our nation? There are a lot of them, including in no particular order; depression, anxiety, false fear, paranoia,
PTSD, sleep apnea, overeating, hoarding (think toilet paper), isolationitis
(social distancing), screen dependency, photo-shaming, alcoholism, pill
addiction, skin irritation (due to wearing latex or rubber gloves), skin hunger
(think shaking hands, fist bumping, hugs, touching) OCD (think washing hands
frequently, as recommended by the CDC) and many others.
If anyone stands to gain any ground here in terms of future
business and finances, it will be the toilet paper industry, mental health
professionals, soap manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and hand sanitizer
makers. Perhaps even President Trump and
his cronies will make a buck or two also.
And then there’s the hoarding aspect. In the past whenever
there’s been a blizzard, we overbuy a lot of things. Milk. Bread. Butter. Water. Batteries. This time, oddly enough, the
hoarding is a little altered. It’s still bread and water, as well as rice, ground
beef, pasta and toilet paper.
Toilet paper?
Why the heck toilet paper of all things? Because toilet paper is truly the most
quintessential human basic need of comforting ourselves in the simplest of
ways. We sleep. We eat. We bathe. We shit. We piss. We use toilet paper. Not
corncobs. Not leaves. Not baby wipes. Not paper napkins. Not Kleenex. Not paper
towels. Just good old-fashioned fucking toilet paper.
It wouldn’t be the first time a toilet paper shortage was
created. Back in 1973 during the oil embargo, which meant shortages of paper,
gas and meat products among other things, Wisconsin Republican Congressman Harold Froehlich issued a press
statement on December 11, 1973, in which he said, "The U.S. may face a
shortage of toilet paper within a few months," and suggested to rationing
toilet paper as a possible solution to fix the problem.
The district he represented included manufacturers within
the paper industry. The press picked up on it and eight days later, on December
19, 1973, TV show host Johnny Carson
stuck it in his monologue and told a live audience and close to 20 million viewers
that there was a shortage of toilet paper. What he left out however, that it
simply wasn’t true and it was only a possibility.
The very next day, December 20, 1973, consumers flocked to
grocery stores and supermarkets in droves and hoarded rolls and rolls and rolls
of toilet paper from store shelves. The hoarding continued nonstop for the next
three weeks until January 11, 1974, when consumers began to see that shops were
being restocked and that there was therefore no shortage.
What I have noticed though on public forums, especially on www.nextdoor.com,
the many complaints of people, in particular, individuals in my area. The complaints range from too many people in
grocery store aisles, open sex in public parks, restaurants not honoring
special requests, residents worried about landscapers manicuring their nice
suburban lawns, residents wanting to stop growth of plants and trees, people
not isolating/social distancing themselves enough, photo-shaming and just
general griping about the pandemic itself.
This troubles me greatly. And saddens me at the same time. I
mean, we’re in the middle of a fucking pandemic and people are complaining
about diminished services? Come on! It’s all a matter of manners. It’s apparent
that politeness has flown directly out the window and straight into the abyss. As
much as I abhor the idea of staying indoors and breathing the same air inside
my airtight living space pod for as many hours, days and weeks as I have, I
feel pretty darned lucky to still be alive. Quit your whining. Quit your
bitching. Quit being so negative.
Stay positive.
The idea of using masks and rubber gloves to me personally,
has become a great social experiment, especially the days that I take walks
around my neighborhood, grocery store visits and riding city buses and trains
to necessary places. Only within the last day (April 3), the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in
Atlanta, Georgia has revised its recommendation of mask wearing to voluntary,
meaning they are most likely giving into the possible conclusion that not a lot
of people are wearing masks.
The CDC has also
recommended that people wear cloth facial coverings and scarves as well. Hell,
bandanas work too. And locally, a lot of people make them. Three people I can
think of right off the bat are: Chris
Kondos Boutique, a local dressmaker at 407 Linden Avenue in Wilmette. She’s
giving them away one per customer.
The mask itself is made of basic white cloth and come in three sizes
small, medium and large. They’re open from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday
and their phone number is 847-256-0107. Be sure and call them before you get
there. Way to go, Chris Kondos!
Next, my old friend and transplanted Chicago artist, Shane Bugbee, is making masks too. Per Bugbee,
all of his masks “are aesthetically pleasing (to the eye) and include two
layers of filtering material.” Each mask has been disinfected and bagged up
individually. They are $25 PPD (which includes free shipping) The great thing
is, that Bugbee will donate $10 from each sold mask to will go to other
material to make masks and then given to grocery store employees! This guy is a
hero in my view! A true mensch in every sense of the word, mensch. One million automatic
punk points to Shane Bugbee!!! You
can contact Bugbee at: shanebugbee@gmail.com
Then there is a third
person that has asked to remain anonymous, who lives in Evanston and hasn’t
left her home since March 1. Her groceries she said, according to a post I read
at www.nextdoor.com are being delivered
to her by her sons. She prefers to just help out for the effort and wants
nothing in return, even though many other community members have offered her
money and food as payment, in exchange for her making masks. What a kind
and generous lady. The world needs more ladies like her!
Watching President
Trump over these past three weeks has been a real treat. Seeing a man
pontificate on the state of a pandemic, first calling it a hoax and then deemed
it as a virus that would soon be vanquished in a matter of a few weeks and then
probably, I say probably lightly, realizing that this was no ordinary virus,
sprung into action. For what it’s worth and more than likely, much to the
chagrin to friends of mine, for the staggering amounts of criticism he’s
harbored over the nearly four years he’s served as president, I’d have to say,
his coordination of all events going forth, has been pretty decent, considering
all that went before him.
It doesn’t make me a greater fan of his. Nor do I admire him
as an individual. No sir. What I do admire is his ability to be able to move
this crisis into a more manageable situation. Sure, he has handlers, assistants
and others helping him out, but the bottom line is that he’s getting done what
needs to be done. And that is commendable.
Having said that, he is the greatest performance artist of a
president that we’ve ever had and furthermore, if you thought for a minute that
the impeachment couldn’t stop him, I can almost guarantee that his lack of
seriousness regarding the pandemic when it first approached the United States in
January 2020 will make him a one-term president. His daily press conferences
are unpredictable and if he doesn’t like a reporter’s question, he will often
become belligerent and cantankerous and offer up his own opinion regarding the
reporter, their question and refuse to answer it. The very idea of his boasting
and bragging on how he and his administration have come in and saved the day is
just sickening. Sickening.
As I stated earlier, both the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate have dropped the attitudes and
are working together, passing bills that will help bail out the United States.
And then there are those doctors and nurses and emergency workers in hospitals
and medical health facilities and treatment centers-the real soldiers on the
frontlines doing battle to defeat this pandemic. And then there are those
therapists, social workers, case managers, and others working at mental health
facilities throughout the United States, helping those who can’t cope with this
sudden change in our living situation.
But there is troubling news, per Forbes’ Lisette Voytko who has written, “when hospitals received
the equipment they desperately need, many of them turned out to be faulty or
expired. Elastic bands on N95 masks were rotting, while some masks were sized
for children rather than adults.” Furthermore, “Then there's the persistent
shortage of ventilators: Hospitals were having to double up patients on one
machine, which could lead to "difficult decisions about ethical allocation
and liability," according to Voytko.
Pretty disheartening, when anyone who has watched a Trump
news conference within the last 48 hours, in which he clearly remarks that the
50 states “Were immediately meeting the needs of local facilities while the
federal government continued to stockpile resources for these states.” Followed by “hospital administrators
were thrilled to be where they are.” (New
York Times and VOX) Pretty contradictory if you ask me.
In a light-hearted way, we’ve found ways to amuse ourselves
through social media. I’ll follow up this post with a similar post in the
coming days. But the good thing is, that it is bringing some families and
people together on levels that is considered pretty good. I’ll go more into
depth in a follow-up post.
But just imagine being born into the world during a pandemic
and being named after the virus itself! And that’s exactly what happened to a
couple in India, whose wife gave birth to twins a girl and a boy to be exact
and named them Corona Rose and Covid
Bryant (when the name is shortened it sounds like, Covi Bryant, a tributary name to the late Los Angeles Lakes
basketball player Kobe Bryant, who
passed in late January in a California helicopter crash). I’m always concerned when parents do
that sort of naming, but that’s another opinion for another time.
This is after all what Americans do when faced with dire
circumstances. We’re all in this together. United we stand, divided we fall.
Teamwork will prevail. Nothing more and nothing less.
Strangely enough, when I spoke to my friend Morten Rahm in Aarhus, Denmark this past
Saturday morning (April 4), he confirmed to me, what I’ve thinking about since
we’ve fell into this pandemic exactly three weeks ago, that “everyday feels
exactly like Sunday.”
You’re exactly right, Morten.
You’re exactly right.
