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The angel of death striking a door during the plague of Rome; engraving by Levasseur after Jules-Elie Delaunay (Wikipedia)
Denial
Denial is our worst enemy. I saw the people of my building flaunting so many rules (consignes) that they should have been penalized. I wrote emails to the Committee managing this building to report dangerous interaction.
However, I did not write that the dangerous interaction I witnessed was in violation of rules put into place by authorities. But, my star fell. I was no longer the quiet person who had purchased an apartment in the building, but someone who would not let her neighbours huddle by the mailboxes, in violation of the rules put into place to protect the citizens of Quebec.
It’s quite simple. The only outings that are allowed are trips to the grocery store and the pharmacy. One cannot touch the money one gives to the pharmacy’s delivery man. Mail is delivered, but parcels are not signed by recipients. Distancing has its rules. One cannot go out to walk the dog.
But what about leaders elsewhere? We know that it took a long time for President Trump to realize that the danger was real and imminent. Not in the United States! Yet, I wonder to what extent he would have been believed had he mobilized the authorities at the end of January. The highways remain busy. I hope these people are driving home. It took a long time for President Trump to suggest self-isolation. He may have thought that the United States was a “free” country and that as President, he had to comfort Americans.
People are now throwing stones at Mr Trump for looking upon the coronavirus as no more than the yearly flu. However, had he closed the country down, would citizens of a “free” country have taken him seriously? I don’t think so. There are exceptionally dutiful Americans. They died on both fronts, the Atlantic and the Pacific, during World War II. Had the President closed the country, he may well have been deemed “un-American” by the very persons who elected him to the Presidency of their country?
Yes, President Trump reassured everyone. This will go come April. His attitude did not differ much from the attitude of my neighbours who didn’t “believe in” the coronavirus and would have agreed with Mr Trump that come April, etc… But I jumped like a lioness. Yet, I don’t think I would point a guilty finger at “sinners.” Nor would I pronounce the President of the United States guilty of a genocide. It’s a pandemic.
The government of China reprimanded the whistle-blower, Dr Li Wenliang. Many Quebecers went to Florida and other sunny destinations several days after I had gone into self-isolation.
Is now the time to throw stones? Not quite. Now is the time when one does not leave one’s house or apartment, except to get food and medication, wearing protective gear. Now is the time when industries produce whatever doctors, nurses require as rapidly as they produce weapons.
I live in the most defiant province of Canada, but the management of this building has now issued consignes, rules, that could prevent hundreds of death were they respected everywhere. I said to a member of the managing committee of this building that I understood my neighbours. They are asked to live upside down. A few weeks ago, they could greet one another and hug when they picked up their mail. They could also exercise in the pool, but all these rooms are closed. My star rose.
—ooo—
Denial is strange. It is as though one believed, yet did not believe at the same time. It’s a defense mechanism. Yet, would that Mr Trump had seen what was going in Wuhan!
One of my nieces so wanted to go to Cuba with her husband and two children. She postponed the trip by a year. Another niece cancelled a trip to Disneyland. Is anything real?
President Trump did take a long time to understand what to him was incomprehensible. Capt. Brett Crozier was dismissed because he disclosed the manner in which coronavirus was managed aboard his ship.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus died of the plague, the Antonine Plague, Antonine after his complete name.
Sources and Resources
Past Pandemics that Ravaged Europe (BBC.UK)
Love to everyone 💕
The bubonic plague killed an estimated 137 million worldwide (BBC.UK)
© Micheline Walker
5 April 2020
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