Truckers are saying “forget the log rules, I’m hauling” and they’re
getting supplies to the stores.
People are stocking the shelves all
night and letting old people shop first.
Folks are buying meals for
truckers, who (obviously) can’t go through the drive-ups. Asking ’em
what they want, then buying it for them.
Carnival Cruise Line has told Trump “We can match those big Navy Hospital ships with some fully staffed cruise ships”.
GM and Ford have said “hold our cars and watch this — we can make
ventilators where we were just making car parts, starting next week” —
by re-engineering seat ventilators which their engineers hacked together
for a new purpose. In under a week.
In a project with which I’m loosely associated, a very-effective
agricultural disease-control agent was re-purposed and re-labeled
specifically for Corona-virus control by the FDA and EPA in under ten
days, from initial request to distribution.
Restaurants and schools have said, “we’ve got kitchens and staff; we can feed the poor kids who used have school lunch.”
NBA basketball players have said, “Hold our basketballs while we write checks to pay the arena staff.”
Construction companies are saying, “Here are some high-end masks for medical staff and doctors”.
Distilleries are making sanitizer out of distilling “heads and tails”
which are normally discarded. Nasty to drink, but effective
sanitizer.
People are tipping grocery check-out clerks and thanking them for taking the risk.
Local, state, and county governments are taking control of everything
the feds cannot do. Some are doing it wrong, but for the first time in
decades … they’re doing it.
Federalism is re-emerging, and the smallest
unit of government is the individual and the family. This, too, is
re-emerging after decades of dormancy.
As Japanese Admiral Isokuru Yamamoto said, after Pearl Harbor … “I
fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a
terrible resolve.”
I sense this has just happened. We have a wonderful country, the
greatest single force for good in all human history.
We have closed our
borders, with good reason, yet we have top medical people now assisting
North Korea in their response to the virus.
Many things have been re-set, and will never be the same.
By microbiological accident, we are living in profoundly transformative historical times.
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