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| scenes from the Spanish Influenza epidemic 1918 |
I finished the two-week
quarantine our Governor has requested for Ohioans returning from out of
state. It wasn’t as difficult as I
thought it would be. Although I might have been tempted to cheat had my brother
not told me there is no way I’ll be able to do it. This kind of statement is like throwing raw
meat to a Doberman. I did not leave my
property for fifteen days.
I’ve had plans to paint the
foyer, kitchen, and dining room for quite a while now but never found the
time. I figure being instructed to stay
in my house for fourteen days is as good a time as any. I knew we would be on “house arrest” after we
got home, meaning I couldn’t go buy paint, so I bought it in Florida before we
left and crossed my fingers that the color would be what I wanted after I had
it on the walls. So far, I’m okay with
it.
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| After |
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| Before |
Anyway, I’ve been hearing way
more than I ever wanted from opinionated, self-proclaimed experts on every
conceivable way to prevent or cure the latest global pandemic. And now, along with millions of other
Americans, I’ve been able to experience quarantine up close and personal.
One line of thought by especially vocal citizens decrying the stay-at-home orders is the belief that this is nothing more than a way to steal our liberties and turn us into a socialist country overnight. The outcry, the outrage, the call to arms (figuratively, at least so far) well, it’s almost as if this has never happened before, as if those of us in the 21st century are enduring hardships and threats never faced by anyone ever since time began.
Recently I heard a short audio
excerpt from a book by Judy Yoder titled Vera’s
Journey: A True Story of God’s Faithfulness amid Sudden Deafness and a Century
of Change. She writes about the
great flu epidemic in 1918 and people being told to quarantine. Schools, professional sporting events,
churches, theaters, and other places where large groups of people congregate
were shut down. This sounds vaguely
familiar to me. It piqued my curiosity
and I decided to ask Google a few things.
My online search about
quarantining history was quite informative and very interesting. The first recorded quarantine instructions
are found in the Bible in the book of Leviticus. Lepers were quarantined under orders from the
Almighty Himself. While today there are
effective treatments for leprosy, I suspect not one of us would have opposed
the forced separation of those afflicted from society at large back in the days
before anyone knew what to do to prevent, treat, or cure this dreaded bacterial
disease.
The most famous mandatory
quarantine in history was of Mary Mallon, or “Typhoid Mary,” as we know
her. A carrier with no symptoms she
continued to infect people while working as a cook. Put on an island for three years, she was
then released into the unsuspecting general population after promising to never
cook for anyone again. Her irresistible
need to make and share her homemade peach ice-cream forced her return to the
island for the rest of her life, twenty-three more years. Seems logical to me.
For anyone who thinks 2020 is the
worst year ever, they should go back about a hundred years. In 1918 WW1 and a killer flu were competing
for center stage at the real-time Horror Awards. The death toll in the United
States alone was 650,000. World-wide it
was much worse. Fifty million people
died of the flu, thirty-four million more than died in the war. These are staggering numbers. I can’t even wrap my head around it. And one reason for the massive infection rate
was the war itself. Soldiers moving from
country to country, and factory workers laboring in the war effort, set the
virus burning through the population like a match to tinder.
The same as a century ago, the one thing
that works to slow the spread is separation.
Unlike a century ago we are not isolated even during the time we spend
in our homes. We have countless ways to
interact. Facebook, twitter and YouTube
for real-time interaction. Smartphones
to text or call. Netflix to entertain. Amazon to shop. And if all else fails, there
are always books, if you’re able to read; hopefully everyone owns a few of
those.
There are several things about quarantining
during the present crisis that disturb me.
Historically the people who were kept isolated were those afflicted with
whatever dread disease was running amuck while the healthy population was still
able to be in public. Today, depending what state you are unlucky enough to live in (Illinois,
Hawaii, Michigan, to name a few) if you are caught out of your house without a
specific, government-approved mission you will be heavily fined and possibly
arrested. Fortunately hundreds of
inmates have been released from various prisons to make room for these heinous criminals
escaping their homes.
A
few governors, along with their “medical experts,” have revealed their lust for
power as they dictate arbitrarily which businesses can stay open and which ones seemingly pose a threat to the health, well-being, and lives of their hapless
constituents. I credit them, though, for trying hard to look distressed while
they take one freedom after another from all of us compliant victims. Indeed I
suspect they are more to be feared than the virus. Our governor has the wisdom
to offer a lot of guidelines and orders in a rather non-threatening way and I’m
not aware of any arrests taking place. But
as time goes on, Ohioans are finding their patience wearing thin as he delays
certain businesses from reopening and extends stay-at-home orders once again.
I am reassured by those notable political leaders who resist the temptation to power
grab, expecting and trusting their citizens to act responsibly with social
distancing, good hygiene practices, and self-isolation when sick. States like
South Dakota and Arkansas are beginning to sound appealing should I think of
relocating.
As time passes my opinion is shifting somewhat. I
no longer think it inevitable that we will suffer the same fate as those poor souls a
hundred years ago. The social distancing
really has made a difference. And I do believe it was important to shut down
for a short time to assess how this bug is going to move. Will it search and destroy everything in its
path or will it be relatively easy to halt, or at least slow it down? It appears we have effectively done that. It’s interesting to me that our very success
in NOT having the horror of the Spanish Influenza nightmare repeating itself
has all the conspiracy theorists shouting their outrage across the land,
proclaiming that this was never anything in the first place. That, I do not believe.
What I do believe, though, is that
power, once given, is very difficult to retrieve. People who insist we need to keep everything
shut down indefinitely must have no concept of where their provisions actually
come from. The government has done many
a grave disservice by paying the unemployed more during their time off than
when they were working, thereby giving the false impression that labor is not a
necessity but an inconvenience. If I were a conspiracy theorist I would
suspect that we might be on a fast track to socialism and the complete deterioration
of our freedoms and life as we know it, unless we get this economy roaring again.
Fortunately, I’m not one of those
people. Or I don’t think I am. Pretty sure.
Could be wrong. On my good days I
really believe we will rise above all of the machinations of small-minded and
power-hungry monsters. Other days, I’m
not so sure. And then I remember those heroes from 1918. The soldiers who died for our freedom. The nurses and doctors who died trying to save the sick. The neighbors who took care of each other. The people who survived to fight another day. Those were our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. That's where we come from and that's who we are.
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9
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