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You Can't go home Again
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By John Freivalds
4/28/2020
Duluth News Tribune
“You Can't Go Home Again” is the title of a famous novel by Thomas Wolfe. A reviewer once wrote that the book's hero, after a prolonged absence, "can't go home again to the forms and systems which seemed permanent but are changing all the time."
Thus, the battle cry of many conservatives and religious zealots to "open the economy" is silly and dangerous.
The economy that existed before the onslaught of the coronavirus doesn't exist anymore. It was ambushed by COVID-19. And the new economy being forged will take a while. We are assured daily that not more than a couple of weeks — but for sure before the election.
I go with Dr. Anthony Fauci when he says science, not politics, should dictate public policy with this virus.
Technological changes already in progress were accelerated by the virus, including online shopping, robotics, distance learning, take-out dining, home offices, video conferencing, telemedicine, and more. The technology is not new.
Think of what happened to the old village smithy in the blacksmith poem by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow in 1840. There were millions of blacksmiths, an epic part of Americana: “Under a spreading chestnut tree / The village smithy stands / The smith a mighty man is he / With large and sinewy hands / And the muscles of his brawny arms / And as strong as iron bands.”
The poem is a case study of a horse-driven society and economy that disappeared almost overnight. Yet when the automobile appeared in the early 1900s, millions of smithies disappeared. A scrawny guy by the name of Henry Ford became the icon of American enterprise. Smithies? They are now called farriers and many still exist around the Duluth area. The creative and adaptable ones now make metal furniture and objects d'art.
The social connections that we assumed safe are not in the future. Will we get into an already-crammed airplane with strangers again, with just a couple of bathrooms? Or sit at a ballgame next to a coughing, beer-swilling fan? Or go to Disneyworld and mix with crowds which come from all over? Or go out to dinner without wearing a face mask?
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, got it right when he said, “People will come out only when they feel safe." And they won't do it to be patriots to save the economy.
It is unreasonable to assume that we will have a vaccine invented, tested, distributed, and taken by the majority of the population within two years. No way. Think about how long it took to get penicillin available and into every rural clinic in America.
However, we can have a nationwide testing program underway within a short period of time. This will allow the freer movements of people as long as we know who is in good shape and who’s sick. That will cut the risk of infection to acceptable levels. Hey, we already expect the risk of air travel, car crashes on I-35 and overturning a sailboat on Lake Superior. That's life.
To entice tourists to the North Shore, hotel billboards in a new economy might read, "Coronavirus-sanitized clean rooms, COVID-19-free staff, and only COVID-19-free guests allowed.” In the new economy, traveling tourists could be certified virus-free. We could have them present certification at check-in.
This is no big deal, for when I traveled the world in the 1970s and ’80s, you had to carry a smallpox vaccination card with necessary updates to get into certain countries. It's pretty absurd that some critics of this are offended. Hey, if you want your dog in a kennel when you take a vacation, you have to show the kennel that the pooch was vaccinated.
In other words, humans have to catch up on how dogs are treated.
John Freivalds of Wayzata, Minn., is the author of six books and is the honorary consul of Latvia in Minnesota. His website is jfapress.com. He wrote this for the News Tribune.
What the people are saying
Dear John Freivalds,
Thank you for your excellent column in the Duluth News Trib. Made my day.
David Brent
Bark Point
Herbster, WI
