Stuck at home for months due to the virus Covid-19. Just waiting out the disease threat until a vaccine is developed or the R-naught is below 1. Patiently waiting for the government OK to start your old life back again. Trying to do the right thing so as not to endanger others with compromised immune systems. Do the right thing so those weakest in the community stay safe. You sheltered in place, you wore a mask, you put your life on hold because it was your responsibility to the community, a sacrifice to protect the whole. In reality it wasn’t much of a sacrifice especially in comparison to the health care workers in the trenches fighting a hand to hand combat war with the virus. Many people did the right thing obeyed the restrictions. Small businesses suffered many of which will not recover but the owners took one for the team. People banded together to help ensure people without enough food could feed their families. People on their own or with others helped to keep people at risk in their homes, assisting with cash or donations of furniture or other necessities. The virus while deadly to some brought out the best in many. While we sheltered in place for those with a weakened immune system, the social bonds created acted like a immune system for the community. People did the right thing for the right reasons.
Now, because of a bad police incident, yes the police involved who acted or failed to act in Minneapolis were criminally wrong and will be prosecuted, we seem to be at war with ourselves. The virus is forgotten, the social bonds created are fading and fear is pervasive throughout the country. Now not a fear of getting sick or of infecting those weakest among us, no now the fear is of anarchy. The fear that our communities are under siege. How could we flip from helping each other to warring with each other in such a short time? Trust that others will help to trust that others will harm. So again we are sheltering in place now not from an unseen foreign born virus but from a home grown illness that a vaccine won’t cure.