Last week when I said I need to write? This was one of those weeks.
Today (July 6): Clifton Park, New York’s Adirondack Taekwondo Reopens
“The virus is with us, but with need to live with it.”
That’s what the anonymous Trump administration official told NBC News, and I swear to Christ it was the thing that broke me. We can’t live with it — and I don’t mean that in the “I have to go to brunch and see Marsha and get a mimosa and no one will stop me because of FREEDOM” way. I mean that in the “130,000 Americans have died, the curve has not flattened and there’s no end in sight to any of this” way. As this has all gotten worse, the one, pervasive thought I’ve had (beyond my personal anxieties) is that it didn’t have to be like this. With a functioning government — one that would have maximized direct aid months ago and maintained it, managed health care resources properly and actually given a good damn — we could have maybe ridden this thing out. It would have been tough, sure, but nothing like this.
But here we are.
“Living with it” is not a strategy.
And for more than 130,000 of us, it is no longer an option.
(From The Saratogian: “When the school reopens on Monday, things will be different. [Adirondack Taekwondo owner Michael] Yuhasz has a unique way of looking at wearing masks though. ‘Back in the day, ninjas used to wear masks,’ he said.” Sounds like a super authentic martial arts experience.)
(Also, “Superman: Man of Tomorrow” #10 is out today. If there was ever a time for an earnest, uncomplicated Supes book, it’s now.)
Tuesday: DC Loads Up on Batman as Usual
When this started — when a sudden spring break turned into an endless shut-in summer — there was at least the sense that we were all in it together, that we all wanted to escape our houses but either there was some local authority mandating that confinement or we knew it wasn’t safe to leave. Now, as the beaches crowd and the rivers clog, it feels mighty lonely watching that sense of shared sacrifice wither and wilt. This is all meaningless anecdotal stuff, mind you, but looking around here (that’d be Central Alabama) nothing seems different aside from some people (maybe half or two-thirds on a good day) wearing masks. The roads are crowded, the dining room at the local off-brand Taco Bell is open and everyone is back to their life.
For what?
(If there’s a Batman book, it’s out this week, and that includes “Batman,” “Batman and the Outsiders,” “Detective Comics” and — as of this writing — “The Batman’s Grave,” which is certainly a choice. If you’re looking for something without Bats, the finale to Greg Rucka’s “Lois Lane” is right there for you.)
Wednesday: New Comic Book Day, I Guess
No one likes a hypocrite, especially when they’re being morose, so I’ll cop to it: My wife and I went out. Not to a restaurant to eat or to a bar (but we could because we live in an insane time and place) but to Office Depot, and it was incredible. To walk those aisles — wearing our masks, of course — and look at all those shining, gleaming office supplies felt like a trip back to another age. The gold paperclips. The Tyrion Lannister USB drives. The rainbow sea of Post-It notes. I got two packs of notepads, some of the really good fine point uni-ball pens and the momentary sense that everything was OK — until I saw the guy at the register with his mask under his nose.
We all want things to be normal again, but pretending they are and doing whatever we want is not a healthy response for anyone.
Myself included.
(“Join the Future” #3, “Money Shot” #6, “Old Haunts” #2 and the new “Willow” book from Boom if “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is your bag. Otherwise, it’s a slow week.)
Thursday: Face Masks Required in Cincinnati as City Ordinance Takes Effect
Without a coherent national response aside from the president complaining about and/or actively thwarting efforts to test for the virus, in many ways, our individual outcomes have been left to chance. Is your governor good? Or are they operating under the political cover of the president? What about your mayor? Your city council? Are they willing to do what they can to help the community? For your sake, I hope they are.
Again, it shouldn’t be this way — someone at a national level should be dictating policy and resources and not leaving it up to geographical good luck. This is like if, during the Allied invasion of Normandy, Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower decided to take the day off, let his field generals do whatever the hell they wanted *and* he took the moment to downplay Hitler as a threat to international peace and human rights. Americans wouldn’t have abided that, but yet, this is the president we have and these are things he has done in this moment of crisis.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, we’ve turned this into a political debate: Are masks a medical necessity, an important tool in slowing or maybe even stopping the spread of the virus? OR DO THEY INFRINGEINATE ON MUH FREEDOMS?
How did we get this goddamn dumb?
(Mask ordinances aren’t the perfect solution, primarily because it falls upon the police and retail/other establishments to enforcement, but they’re something. From the WLWT report: “Of course, masks are not needed while eating or drinking in restaurants and bars, the ordinance states, but they are required when waiting in line and sitting at indoor restaurant tables.” So … maybe we don’t need dine-in restaurants right now, Cincinnati. But I guess that’s just me.)
Friday: NCBD: The Long(er) Reads Not Out on Friday But Take Time to Read Them *On* Friday
Choosing between public health and the economy was always a false dichotomy — if we had a stated government policy other than “die for Applebee’s,” maybe we’d have more direct aid and people wouldn’t have to rush back to work. But, again, we’re living in a failed state. As we saw with the early relief efforts that included more than $500 billion to large corporations, money is only a funny little imaginary concept, and if the U.S. government wanted to put more of it in the hands of workers, then it could happen. Easily.
So when tenants of the Champlain Centre Mall in Plattsburgh, New York, complain that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is not being fair when letting large stores (with better ventilation) reopen while keeping their smaller shops closed, the answer is not to open all the shops: It’s to give the nail technicians and air brush T-shirt artists (I’m assuming there’s at least one air brush shirt shop there, possibly more) enough money to live until it’s safe to have customers again.
(Does the first half of a new edition of “God Loves, Man Kills” count as a long read? I think I should pick it up if only to fit in with all the Marvel folks here at XavierFiles. We’ve also got “Killadephia” vol. 1, the penultimate volume of “Rick and Morty” and “Supergirl: Being Super.”)
(Also, “The Old Guard” drops on Netflix.)
Saturday: Disney’s Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom Reopen to the Public
There are some places you need to go right now (like the grocery store and work if you can’t work from home), some places you can go to but you don’t have to go (like Office Depot) and some places you should not visit under any circumstance for any reason — like an amusement park. The idea that Disney is reopening is revolting — because of the fact we’re putting workers in harm’s way, because it’s all so unnecessary and because it’s so fundamentally disturbing. Look at the video Disney itself put out with all of its “cast members” so happy and excited to be back at work and on the front lines of a global pandemic. Does any of that seem sane to you? The greed and rot are so readily apparent, it seems like something Mark Russell wrote up and threw away. And yet people — people who need to sit and think about what they are doing with their time on this spinning ball of space dust — will go.
And the disease will spread.
(From the Fox 35 report: “Select cast members will be a part of the ‘Social Distancing Squad’ who will joyfully remind guests to practice social distancing.” I think my soul curdled.)
Sunday: Members of the Duke Football Team Return to Campus
In my Day Job (TM), I am a college educator, a cog in an industry exposed to the same illogical thinking and financial insecurities seen everywhere else. (Except on campus, we have three levels of administrator with advanced degrees who are making these bad decisions.) With major conference football and on-campus students functioning as the profit centers keeping many institutions afloat, we are rapidly heading toward a precipice, and I do not know if we will be able to stop in time. Football will not be safe in August or September, and neither will on-campus classes. But universities across the country will push for both.
Some institution — and it won’t be the NCAA — must have the courage to stop before it hits the cliff, before it hauls students back to campus and turns dorms into virus incubators.
Someone in this mess of failure and sickness and death needs to show some tiny modicum of leadership.
And soon.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
