I Met a Traveller from an Antique Land

So here is where things stand where I live. There have been cases of Covid-19 in the nearby county. The university I work at has moved all classes online, and told the students to go home if they can. Many students are staying for legitimate reasons like 'we have no internet at home' and 'there is more coronovirus there than here', as well as less legitimate reasons like 'I just find it harder to stay on track when at home'. You are adults now, and you need to learn how to do hard things, especially when it comes to times when we need to do hard things for the good of our general community. 

For instance, I was supposed to go visit my parents this weekend. They live a few hours away and their county has no reported cases of Covid-19 yet. My parents are also in their 60s and my dad is a smoker. One of our library student workers is self-isolating because of a fever. Due to this, I decided not to visit my parents. Yes it's hard, yes the chances of me being a carrier for the virus is close to nil. But on the very off chance that I am a carrier, I do not want to be the cause of my parents' sickness and/or death. So I made the hard decision. I'm not going to church this weekend either for the same reason.

Meanwhile, in the world, the market is doing...things. I'm not worrying much for myself, a recession might actually be good in the long run for me as I buy at a lower price. However, my parents are retired and living on a fixed income. While they have done well in their earning years, and have a goodly sum to live on, things may get tight for them. I hope they realize they can ask for help, whether financial or medical. I don't make much myself, but add in my brother and sister and we can certainly support them for awhile if needed.

Italy seems to be in a panic, and I worry about my cousins there. (I met my distant cousins on a trip a few years back.) We haven't kept in touch, but all except one are of an older generation. They're in the south, so there's that, but in general things in Italy do not look good. Apparently they are already triaging patients in some places, basically deciding who lives and who dies because of a lack of equipment. And if our government doesn't shape up and actually do something productive, that could easily happen here. No, it doesn't help to cancel flights from Europe when there is already Covid-19 in the US. 

This whole thing is definitely going to test the resiliency of our present-day democracies. We already live in a testing time, and goodness does everything remind me of the Gracchi brothers and end of the Roman Republic, but this virus could have political ramifications far into the future. The responses of governments to a crisis can either lend legitimacy (a la Churchill and King George VI during World War II) or can destroy legitimacy leading to political change (a la the Plague of Athens which, along with the concurrent Peloponnesian War, led to the downfall of Athenian power). 

 Let's hope this isn't as drastic.