Did you hear about the neighbor?

I was listening to Mara Gay, member of the New York Times Editorial Board talk about the perception that New Yorkers don’t know each. She said she knows her neighbors. “We raise our families. I know the kids down the street. The spirit of NYC is knowing each other, you go to the same corner store, your kids play together. You go to the same bagel shop. You talk to the cops that you meet on the street. That’s part of the fabric of living here. We’re used to being able to send our kids down the street to the store.”

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“What makes this pandemic difficult is knowing that our neighbors are suffering and that we can’t actually be together.” Mara Gay wrote an Op-Ed about it. She said they will keep up the fight in NYC because that’s what they do even there, (even seemingly as the President of the United States isn’t supporting them): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/opinion/new-york-coronavirus.html?searchResultPosition=2 .

“For now, we are finding moments of light in unexpected places.

My childhood friends and I have been enjoying happy hour (or ‘quarantini’, if you like) over FaceTime. The last time we’ve seen this much of one another was in high school.

One morning last week, I played flashlight tag with the kids in the building across the street. When we tired of the game, we waved to one another, and I saw four little faces pressed up against the glass from yards away.

We go on long walks under the warming early spring sun, giving our neighbors lots of room as we pass them by. Rainbows dot the windows, offering a little cheer for a city that desperately needs some.

One day soon, we will all shove into the same subway car together, cursing under our breath, but crowding closer to make room for one more.”

In NY, they will  fight on and in neighborhoods all over the country. I live in Raleigh. I grew up in St. Pete and still have family there.

I have family in Washington, DC, in Maryland, in Los Angeles, in Chicago, in Louisiana, in Berkley CA. We are used to being together whenever we can at our own discretion. You have family in many other places around the country and world. Even if you hadn’t planned to be physically together right now, you didn’t expect to be mandated not to be together.

The gyms and fitness centers are closed so to get some exercise, walk around your neighborhood. I’ve lived in my neighborhood for 28 years. I actually do know my neighbors, even those that moved in recently. I did the old fashioned thing and took them baked goods when they moved in, Butch brought wine for them. When we first moved into our neighborhood, there were many children in the neighborhood who were in the age ranges of our children. It was great. We had neighborhood gatherings, including 4th of July bike parades when they were little, snow get-togethers on snow days, and lots of playing outside and inside.

I don’t know how much of that still happens in neighborhoods but these stay-at-home days makes me think of connections like that.

I know my neighbors and I care about how they’re doing right now. I talked to the neighbor across the street from me at the mailbox yesterday. I am glad that I already knew him and we could chat about what’s happening. He moved in about 18 months ago. The former occupants of that house was a family that included three daughters who grew up with our daughters and son and they feel like family to us, we went to their daughters’ weddings.

Staying-at-home orders mean you can still go for a walk, you can wave at your neighbor and still keep your six feet of distance. You can ask how they are doing. You can check on them, ring the door bell and step far enough back when the door opens so you get to put eyes on them and ask if they need anything.

I’ve heard about young people doing grocery store shopping for their elderly neighbors so they can have food and don’t have to worry about getting out to shop while this pandemic is happening. Have you thought of offering that for neighbors? Maintaining social distance doesn’t mean we can’t help each other and it doesn’t mean we can’t “connect” with each other.

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Don’t wait for someone to ask you, “did you hear about the neighbor?” Now’s a good time to find out yourself. Do you know your neighbor? Can you do something for your neighbor right now while you are spending more time in your neighborhood? This can be done while practicing good social distancing techniques.  It probably won’t cost you much money and it just might make you feel good.

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Why did gas prices go down so quickly? In other words, once we survive this crisis, how to use what happened to change our world. Answer: demand met reality.

Want to change the world? What’s the best idea you can think of? I don’t think things will go back to how they used to be. Better said, they shouldn’t. Ever. Now is our opportunity to think of what can be a new vision for how we live, how we take care of the vulnerable, what teachers are paid, how every household gets access to the internet, how food & healthcare are basic rights. What happened with gas prices at the pump just might be a perfect example of how you and I can change the world.

Once the federal government gets its act together, mostly because states and the public are demanding it … and because hopefully voters know that we need to put a more competent, truthful leader in the White House in November … we can spend some of time now thinking about how to write our future.

What’s your thinking? You are likely spending less time out of the house socializing so can you spend some time creating a new paradigm for living, taking care of each other. We aren’t going back to where we were. That’s not happening.

Do you think oil companies just on their own decided they wanted to make less profit so they lowered their gas prices? Nope. Gas prices are now less than $2 in many places all around the country because of the demand. It’s simple economics. The demand got lower so the oil companies dramatically lowered their prices to try to attract / increase sales. Nothing had changed with the supply of oil. Previously, they simply wanted to make more profit. But the public health crisis of COVID-19 drove down the demand so dramatically that they determined people were less likely to buy gas, in fact less able to buy gas, if the prices stayed high. Simple. So, the price went down.

Yes, we’re in a public health crisis. The doctors, health professionals are working to get it better. The Governors and Mayors are stepping up to do what the Republican Administration failed to do. The feckless White House has little credibility and we have learned to discount what comes from them every day, in fact hourly.

We have people who don’t have enough food, not enough water, not enough access to health care. And we all need to be cautious and prudent in governing our personal behavior and actions accordingly. There are plenty of resources to tell you what to do so I encourage you to seek those out. What else can we do while we’re practicing social distancing, working from home, washing our hands, checking in with family & friends?

What else can we can do in the interim?

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We should look at the future we want to build. As the government looks at spending trillions of dollars, let’s look at building a better future for the people who are being hardest hit right now. We can’t have utilities shut off for them. We can’t have small businesses without funding to start back up. Why are we even considering bailouts for big businesses who did stock buybacks yet proposing loans to small businesses that would have to pay that money back? Some politicians would say it’s too expensive to help small businesses but they’re ready to give bailouts and tax cuts to big business.

On health care, the insurance companies weren’t suffering financially but the hospitals and clinics weren’t prepared for a national health crisis. Let’s invest in public health care. Let’s figure out what the new normal should look like.

Gina McCarthy, former EPA Administrator says yes we should focus on the immediate acute health needs and we should deal with this but she along with others say this points out the need for affordable health care on systemic basis. We need to highlight what we had in the makings of Obamacare before Republicans worked to dismantle it. Now more than ever, we can see why affordable health care for everyone is critical, in America it should be a baseline right for everyone not just the rich.

Focus on making the world better, cleaner, more healthy, better for getting around. McCarthy says we have an opportunity to look at the future we want to build not just how we want to handle this crisis. Let’s talk about transit investment while the transit systems are being reduced because people are being told to stay at home. When the transit systems are ready to start back up at full capacity, what/who needs should they serve?

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The things that are needed to address climate change are cost effective so don’t accept the argument that we can’t do it. Instead of negotiating with the oil industry, because there is no oil shortage, they simply weren’t making as much money as they wanted, we should use this time to create the best green energy plans. Get rid of our dependence on fossil fuels anyway but while we’re still dependent on them, where’s the incentive for them to keep prices low. It shouldn’t be in tax breaks for their large companies or sweet talk for Saudi Arabia by the Trump family.

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How about talking about safe drinking water investments? What happened in Flint, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey shouldn’t happen again. We are all vulnerable. If the pandemic is people to people contact, what happens next when something gets in our water supply and it’s further widespread than one or two cities?

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Food assistance – many people were without food before you weren’t able to go out to your favorite restaurant. What can we do better to have food assistance infrastructure systems in every community. Chef Jose Andres is a saint for setting up his community kitchens. The many soup kitchens that are staffed in our communities for the homeless and working poor are amazing but they aren’t enough. How do we ensure that no American ever goes to bed hungry? How do we keep a parent from having to choose between medicine and putting a meal on the table?

Primary, secondary and college schooling – if you thought online learning was important to get through school systems being shut down to flatten the curve for a pandemic, then every home should have computers and access to online. This should be for those in urban and rural communities. Online access should be just as fast for a student in Mississippi as it is for a student in Connecticut.

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There is so much we can do during this time of “stay at home,” “quarantine” “shelter in place” and not gathering with more than 5 or 10 people. I am going to do some spring cleaning this week. I look forward to clearing out my laundry room, den, family room, bedrooms, closets, desk, shelves and places around my house. I am now also looking forward to using the cleared spaces of my mind during this time to think freshly about what we need after this pandemic. I plan to survive it. I want you to survive it too. After we survive it, then let’s have a blueprint to thrive.

One last area to talk about is what we have seen from our political leaders during this crisis. This experience is showing us we should clean there too.

Political leadership – from now on, look at how you decide on who should be elected based on how they are able to handle a pandemic. Someone who is proven to lie regularly, who is a misogynist, who is on tape talking about grabbing a woman by her genitals, someone who lies about the media simply for telling the truth about his actions, someone who goes after his political opponents by using making up stories about them or intimidating others to investigate lies about them, someone who has filed multiple bankruptcies, someone who has been sued for having a fake university, someone who brags about violence at a political rally, someone who has no respect for the Intelligence Community & who openly admires political adversaries like Russia’s Putin — is this someone who you think would be capable of leading the country in a major public crisis like this? It’s a false narrative to say, the “lesser of two evils” like some did in 2016.

There is nothing about this current President of the US that says he would have been the President we needed for this time in 2020. Nothing. This COVID-19 crisis should forever be a reminder of how we choose who to vote for in a Governor and a US President. We now know that literally our lives depend on it.

Gas prices are low because demand literally met reality. Now, we have an opportunity to co-create a new reality for what our country should look like for all citizens. COVID-19 hasn’t cared about skin color, gender, political party, job role, age or anything. If we demand a country that take care of everyone better and choose our leaders based on their capability and willingness to doing this, to put forth a vision for this, we will be better prepared next time. Reality will be what we demand.

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If you wear a sweater, you’ll warm up … Breathe

Things are a bit unsettled right now. As I was riding in the car though, listening to the many health experts and commentators talk about the COVID-19 pandemic, one of them made a very simple statement: “If you wear a sweater, you’ll warm up.”  I think the point of this was to use common sense, take appropriate steps to safeguard yourself and others, and then breathe. Breathe deep and often. Without panic.

The federal government has failed us and didn’t take steps for containment that would have potentially stemmed this sooner rather than later.

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So, we are where we are. But given that this is where we are, if you consider the analogy of “if you wear a sweater, you will warm up” then we can manage this situation with some calm.

Be smart about your movements and take the precautions that all the experts say, not what comes from the White House because honestly they aren’t credible. So breathe. Times may become such that we don’t get out and about as much as we used to with each other in the near term. But still connect, call each other and utilize face time technologies to see each other. Breathe.

Our world will be changed for a very long time but we must find a way to live with some precautions.

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Especially for those who have underlying health vulnerabilities. With health challenges, do take advice from your doctors, do listen closely to the health professionals. Even with the hits that the CDC is taking because the Commander in Chief handicapped the response, the CDC has world-class experts on public health. We need to let them do their job without White House interference. And the public health officials with the expertise should be the ones leading the press conferences.

For the rest of us, create a new normal. Breathe. I went out today, yes my husband and I did that. We went to the home of friends for a game of bid whist. Neither of us has underlying health vulnerabilities. We will make judgments about our personal movements as things move along. Panic won’t help. We will stay informed. We will breathe. We will stay connected with our family. We communicated with each of our grown daughters and son this week, wanted to check in on them. We will continue to do so. I know you will do the same. No one should be isolated right now even if we are staying in our homes more often than we used to.

Breathe. Breathe deeply.

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Maybe you’re not going to the gym/fitness center but walking outside is free and that can be done with social distancing. And, it will allow you to breathe deeply. Spring has sprung where I am, so I can get out for a walk. That can be a brisk walk or a jog or a run. You can too.

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We need each other right now. Mostly, we need to stay calm. If you wear a sweater, you will warm up. So the chills of this experience can be overcome if we lean into what the experts are telling us, check on each other, and take care of ourselves and our loved ones.

Breathe.

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