I HEAR PEOPLE SAYING “Now I know how Anne Frank felt” hiding from the nazis for 761 days in the Secret Annex.
Today we have a plethora of ways to talk to people around the globe. We even can, with the right tools, see them face-to-face.
Anne Frank lacked those tools.
Her world was the “Secret Annex” and the seven other people who shared it with her.
THE CHINESE VIRUS, as President Trump correctly identifies it, has changed the lifestyle of most of us.
There are some, the entitled generation who go about pleasure as usual, knowing IF they become infected, the likelihood that they will survive with only minimal discomfort is great.
Never mind that they may, through their cavalier, hedonistic, attitude, infect others — both the very young and the elderly. “Not my problem.”
CONFESSION
I hate telephones, but I realize they are a “necessary evil.”
For most of my 70-plus years I have communicated in writing. I used to have a good “hand” and, frankly, I was proud of it. My words? Always room for improvement.
For several decades I have used email to share what I know with people whom I hope want to read what I write.
But mail — “snail” or electronic — is not the same as a face-to-face conversation. It’s great for “CYA” situations, but — as with the telephone — you cannot see your correspondent’s face as what you wrote is read or as a reply is communicated..
Since I have (and have had) a computer for many years — OK, many computers over many years; designed obsolescence in action — I have had applications that allow me to see and talk to people around the globe.
Skype, before it as MS Skype, for awhile.
Now Facebook’s WhatsApp.
Google's DUO – a company that obsoletes applications almost as fast as it acquires them.
Zoom.
Some friends and family prefer WhatsApp; great on iPhone or Android “smartphones,” but not so good on a computer — it does text OK and images transfer, but on the computer users cannot see the other party/parties.
Zoom works on “smartphones” and the desktop; it seems popular with businesses although it offers a free version geared to the individual.
Bottom line: today even being home-bound, a person need not be isolated.
For several years I worked from my home office and communicated with 42 remote sites in 17 different states and never — never — traveled from my house.
Of course when the Internet Service Provider (ISP) crashes, everything on the desktop is out of service, too. The mobile phone is another story for some things.
By and large, however, today’s sequestered individuals still have access to “The World.”
They can read news blogs — the media’s veracity may be questionable, but it is there to read — they can call family and friends, even their elected officials who may, or may not, be responsive. If there is a window, they can gaze out as they communicate electronically.
This is not Anne Franks’ world.
Sequestered or quarantined — call it what you will — will not prevent anyone from reaching out.
Unless the isolation is in a hospital or similar setting where communications tools may be banned from isolation areas for the patient’s protection. Some diseases can be transferred to patient property that cannot be sanitized without being ruined. Most cellphones, tablets, and computers would not survive an autoclave session.
Isolation related to the Chinese virus is only “semi-isolation.”
People still can go out to buy food; delivery people still can deliver. But, except for necessities, a walk around the block is about the maximum distance to wander.
Since this was keyed, residents of my area are confined by executive order to their yards — if they HAVE a yard. Pity the apartment dwellers.
In Israel, police will arrest people who go more than 100 meters (that is about 330 feet) from their door.
This is not Anne Frank’s isolation.
Stay home
According to Florida’s governor — who may very well be a one-term governor — about 190 airplanes arrive in Florida every day. Many are from New York-New Jersey-Conneticut, an epicenter of the Chinese virus.
Florida, particularly south Florida, already has hundreds of cases of the disease.
Florida is scrambling to get enough test kits to test Floridians — never mind the folks from New York and similar locales.
The governor claims that all passengers will be tested — “temperature tested” one guesses — and then told to go into “a 14-day self-quarantine or isolation period.”
Editorial opinion: FAT CHANCE!
Floridians already see 20-somethings flaunting the laws on the supposedly closed beaches.
Who cares if the young people infect others; they are — but maybe not — immune from any serious illness.
Never mind the burden their excursions to Florida put on the state’s ability to protect its citizens health and, frankly, their wallets as its Floridian’s tax dollars that will fund testing (with or without promised assistance from the Federal government).
Floridians’ advice to anyone getting on a plane, train, bus, or even a private automobile: STAY HOME
If the governor really wants to protect the citizens, he needs to close the borders.
Winter is over.
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