In eighty years we’ve gone from every American being asked to do their part (and doing it!) to “I DON’T WANNA WEAR A MASK!” (When I say all Americans that included even infants as canned milk/formula was part of the dairy rationing)
At the beginning of WWII the Office of Price Administration was established to among other things identify needed items and administer national rationing of them to meet the war effort. Rationed foods included sugar, milk (and other dairy), meat, coffee, dried fruits, jams, jellies, lard, shortening, and oils. Other rationed items included tires, gasoline, and even automobiles as well as fuel oil, coal, firewood, nylon, silk, and shoes. Due to diversion of materials for the war effort things like wool for winter coats and socks to freaking razor blades, and even inner tubes for bicycle tires (which mattered back then) were in short supply. For a nation struggled to emerge from a decade long depression the strict rationing wasn’t something folks were thrilled about but they believed it was the duty of every American to do what they could to support the war effort. Again, many years of deprivations left a mass of malnourished Americans who also went without needed medical treatments to the degree that fully one-fourth of those who volunteered or were drafted for military service were rejected as medically unfit. And plenty of them weren’t just bothered by it, they were actually ashamed to be stuck on the home front! But again, this generation of Americans, almost all of whom are now dead and buried put their heads down and did their part. Kids to old folks went around gathering scrap metal, glass items, old tires and inner tubes and other stuff to be RECYCLED! Oh the horror! The American government organized a massive, nationwide recycling effort and people actually gladly took part! Eighty years ago Americans did all this and more. In short they overwhelmingly and willingly sacrificed to meet a threat. One last point, as noted here about cheating - whether by those selling or those purchasing rationed goods was serious business and would get someone into a world of trouble as noted in War Ration Book Two (1943):
This book is the property of the United States Government. It is unlawful to sell or give it to any other person or to use it or permit anyone else to use it, except to obtain rationed goods for the person to whom it was issued. Persons who violate Rationing Regulations are subject to $10,000 fine or imprisonment, or both.
Now, let’s compare all THAT to the present time.
“I DON’T WANNA WEAR A MASK! Because “freedom”, or “reasons” etc. Oh, and MAGA! Then there are younger folks from one end of the political spectrum to the other who, with the rude good health of youth and still believing in their invincibility and their “right” to gather together in crowed bars, house parties and beach festivals with all the attendant “hooking up” displaying the “I have to live my life attitude.”
I think about this whiny, self-indulgent, far too often for political posturing complaining and wonder what the national conversation would be like if most of the WWII generation was still alive. Those who were born by 1930 (they’d be 90+ by now) and were old enough to get what was going on and fully understand once they reached adulthood are mostly dead and buried by now. I sure as hell remember the stories from my parent’s and grandparent’s generations and I have no doubt at all almost all of them would at best only tell me to sit my ignorant butt down for a serious talking to. I’m sure folks I grew up with who are conservative would say otherwise but they’d be lying. My long dead parents and grandparents would rip me a new one if I were to complain about the “inconvenience” of wearing a mask in public, or practice social distancing. And again, when it comes to the whole young person “I have to live my life” line of reasoning? Being in my sixties, I remember well a time when spouting off the crap I hear these days would get someone proverbially (and in some families literally) slapped silly by their elders. Not just their own family but in their communities.
People want to equate the Covid-19 virus with the flu. Well, in six months it’s already killed more than twice the number of people who have died in the very worst of flu seasons (except of course for the pandemic of 1918-19) and that’s just the people we know about since testing has been so screwed up. It’s likely at least twice as many people have contracted the virus, and at least twice as many have died than has been reported. Unlike the flu in which each person usually infects at most one other person, those with Covid-19 infect TWO people, and the worst part is that unlike the flu a large portion of those spreading Covid-19 don’t have any symptoms at all! We are less than a year into this and nowhere near understanding the how and why of the differences in its impact on different individuals. Nor are we anywhere near understanding the full measure of the long-term, chronic negative impact on some individuals that recover but we know already that its significant problem that will need plenty of study.
For me the bottom line is that led by a President and almost all of his political Party we have thirty or forty million (if not more) Americans who either to make a political statement or dumbass belief they are in a group (again I’m picking on the 25 and under crowd) that is largely unaffected and possess the “I have to live my life” attitude. So they refuse to wear masks or social distance, and wind up breathing that virus all over the place. In the grocery store where it settles on the stuff in MY cart for example. Or on my car door due to someone grunting as they exhale while getting out of the passenger side of a vehicle they rod in. I’m sure anyone reading this can come up with other common examples. The point is that because this particular virus spreads so easily countless people with mild or no symptoms spread it to others, many of whom WILL experience symptoms, Severe ones requiring home quarantine and possible loss of their job, or hospitalization (as conservatives continue their efforts to dismantle health care and privatize it all including the VA) assuming they don’t live in a place where the beds are all full. And as we know over 160,000 have died and again, the actual number is certainly far higher than what we know.
As far as I’m concerned every one of these “I DON’T WANN WEAR A MASK!” people who pass the virus to someone who gets sick is guilty of aggravated assault, and anyone who dies because of these selfish a$$holes is guilty (at best) of negligent homicide! Or reckless manslaughter or whatever the charge for depraved indifference resulting in death would be in a given state. That doesn’t even get to the biggest crime which is the ineptitude that allowed things to get this bad in THIS country in the first place. If as has been reported decisions were made early on that it was “a blue state problem” and despite sound expert medical advice to the contrary a reckless bet was placed that the whole thing would quickly go away? That a calculated decision was made that since it was “blue state” economies that would be hurt and have people die so treat it like a political PR problem instead of a national health emergency. If that indeed took place then we are into Crimes Against Humanity territory.
Other major developed countries have proven this pandemic can be if not controlled then at least managed well enough to allow some form of normalcy to safely return. It can be done. The means and methods to do so are pretty straightforward but to implement them require national leadership that makes it clear we are all in this together, and that we all have to do our part to meet the challenge. The kind of leadership in the White House we had eighty years ago.
And don’t have now.