Tag: panic

Stop Yelling at Me

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 20 Comments

Well, the madness about the Coronavirus is taking over like a runaway train, smashing down gates, panicking everyone, along with  showing many people’s true colors.

It has also has spotlighted one of my (many) character flaws… Im getting hurt way too easily. What a baby.

You would think a chick in her mid-late-60s would have her $hit together enough to not let the panic of the pandemic rattle her cage.

Well, my friends, my cage has been rattled.

One thing I’ve noticed is that people are getting very opinionated and vocal about this pandemic. I am reading responses (this happens to be on Facebook) from people that are bordering on nasty. And like a runaway train, it keeps on going. Faster and faster.

Schools are already closed in my state, along with churches, restaurants, and activities of any sort. Now the discussion/debate is whether we should be “social distancing.” If we should stay away from public gathering places like restaurants in order to not get/spread this virus. I gave my simpleton response to someone’s FB question and was dutifully pounced on for it.

Look. I am old(er). My family and friends are either getting up here or past me. I have young kids and younger grandkids. We are all concerned. We are all in various stages of understanding something like this, and are doing our best.

But there are increasing numbers of people who are losing patience. People who are yelling and scolding online to people they don’t even know. Even people who make jokes to get through the darkness are being sent to the woodshed. The big bravado provided from behind a computer screen makes people pull that “what’s the matter with you?” card.

It makes me hesitant to post anything anymore.

 I understand the reasoning behind ultra caution. What I don’t understand is the bullying.

Look, people. I’ve survived cancer, family members dying,  car rollovers, and surgeries. I will survive the coronavirus, too, without stocking up for Armageddon.

Everybody gets it. This is a bad time for healthcare. World War II and Vietnam and the Holocaust were bad times for healthcare, too. But we survived.

There is no need to get naughty and nasty about sharing your opinions. These are your fellow human beings you’re talking to. I don’t want us to become a world isolated from itself because some still don’t “get it.”  We need to share ideas and opinions so we can learn. So we can grow.

Stop yelling at me. Or my friends. Or at people I don’t know.

Stop being a bully.

This, too, shall pass. But the hurt feelings won’t.

People and the Coronavirus

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 15 Comments

Wednesday or Thursday evening has become my grocery shopping night. I’m either on my way back from cleaning the Chicago house or spending some time with the grandkids, so why not stop on my way home and save a trip tomorrow?

So hubby and I stopped in a big superstore in Waukesha, a fairly big and bubbling city in Wisconsin.

The above picture was the scene for the check out line. It ended at the far wall of the superstore, in the last frozen food aisle. See where the arrow is pointing? That is the beginning of the check out turnstyles.

People kept falling in line behind the last one in line. And on and on. We wandered to the front of the store where there were way shorter lines and got out in a jiffy.

But everyone was buying water and disinfectant. And toilet paper.

Toilet paper.

Standing in line for over an hour just for toilet paper. Limit 2.

People, people, people. What is going on?

I understand using caution with the coronavirus. People are popping up with this infection all over the place. In the U.S., everything from March Madness basketball games to local choral concerts to music concerts to Little League Championship Baseball Tournaments have been cancelled. Universities are closing immediately until further notice. (My niece is one who is being sent home today).

Cases in the U.S: (updated on March 13 at 9:30 .a.m., WebMD)

Deaths in the U.S.:

Washington state: 31. Twenty-two are associated with the Life Care Center skilled nursing facility in King County, Washington
Florida: 2. One is a previously known patient in Santa Rosa County who had recently been on an international trip The other is a person in their 70s who tested positive in Lee County, also after an international trip.California: 4. One was in an elderly person from Placer County who had recently gone on a Princess cruise to Mexico. The other is a woman in her 60s from Santa Clara County. The third was in a woman in her 90s who lived in assisted living. The fourth was in a woman in her 60s who had traveled overseas. She died in Los Angeles County but is not a resident there.

New Jersey: 1. The state’s first death is in a man in his 60s from Bergen County.

Georgia: 1. The state’s first death is in a man in his 60s with underlying conditions.

South Dakota: 1. A man in his 60s from Pennington County. Gov. Kristi Noem said he had underlying health conditions.

Compare that to:

So far, the CDC has estimated (based on weekly influenza surveillance data) that at least 12,000 people have died from influenza between Oct. 1, 2019 through Feb. 1, 2020, and the number of deaths may be as high as 30,000.    (Health, 2020).

I am not downplaying the seriousness of any virus. Not at all. I’m old and am at risk just like everyone else.

But PLEASE. Standing in line for an hour just in case you are kept in your house for a week or two? Stocking up on water — like your faucet won’t work?

I was amazed, appalled, astounded, astonished, alarmed, and basically just freaked out by how many people were stockpiling. Each one looked at the forever-line and just fell in behind them.

What is happening?

It’s as easy to catch the flu as it is to catch the coronavirus. And just as easy to prevent it. We’re not talking about those who are weakened by another condition, just to be taken by the flu or the virus. We are not talking about those with weak immune systems.

We are talking about John Q. Public.

Wash your hands. All the time. Sanitize the air if you must. Stay away from large crowds if you must. Even if you get the virus, the chances are ENORMOUSLY RARE that will you die from it. You probably will get hit by a car before expiring from the virus.

All I’m saying — I think many of us are saying — is just use COMMON SENSE and we will all get through this.

Now excuse me while  I sanitize my insides with a little Moscato Wine….

 

You Are Not Your Conditioning

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 11 Comments

thTruth time is often embarrassment time. Sometimes it’s an uncomfortable time. But often it is necessary time. So here goes.

This morning I read an article on ESPN.com about the Minnesota Vikings investigating a confrontation where one fan demanded to know if another fan was a refugee.  http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14332031/minnesota-vikings-review-refugee-confrontation-fan. 

With all the bombings and shootings taking place recently, I knew it would only be a matter of time before knuckleheads started beating on anyone of a different skin color.

The truth is even more upsetting.

I went to a football game on Sunday; our group stands around on the first level, watching the teams warm up, before we go to the nosebleed seats. As I stood there, this “dark-skinned” man came up beside me, and the first thing…the FIRST THING…I thought was…is he a terrorist?

Turned out his wife came around soon, and they took pictures of each other with the field and players in the background, laughing and posing and having a good time. They took off to seats unknown, and I was instantly ashamed of what I thought.

I had no idea of his nationality, where he lived, what he did for a living. But with the media pumping fear into all of us all the time, I slipped into the same mud millions of others do. I judged a person by the color of his skin.

And I am ashamed.

I know better, I believe better. Yet years of reinforcement of prejudice from all around me had me acting like Pavlov’s dog. Bring in a trigger and your mind instantly goes to the same place. Every time. Now, the guy in the above article was an idiot; he confronted the guy openly, became unruly, and security had to be called. This is what the fellow said:

“…somewhere in his mind, all he saw was a terrorist, based on nothing more than the color of my skin. He was white, and I wasn’t. He didn’t see anything else. He didn’t know that I have lived in Minnesota for the past four years, that I was born and raised in New York and that the words ‘Never Forget’ may mean more to me than to him.  He didn’t know that when I went home and my children jumped on top of me and asked ‘How was the game?’ that I’d be holding back tears as I told them about racism instead of touchdowns.”

Is that what the world has become? A world of suspicious anti-terrorist spotters?

Yes, we have to be  aware of what’s going on around us. I learned to be alert and watch what was going on when I worked in downtown Chicago many years ago. Keep going on with your business, but don’t get lost in your daydreams until you get where you’re going.

But this terrorist threat is hurting a lot of decent people. People who keep their religion to themselves. People who work beside you and shop beside you and are as frightened of someone gunning them down as we are.

Yet extremists go far beyond stupidity and want to ban all refugees from entering the country. Want to do triple checks on their backgrounds and family trees. Why not corral them all and put them in pens like the U.S. did to the Japanese after the war?

The original point of this post was that I let my mind go to the deepest, most embarassing part of my psyche and I prejudged someone with absolutely zero facts. I admit I sometimes do that when I’m around African Americans and Mexicans and other ethnicities.  And I am ashamed.

I am spooked by weird people and giant people and people who talk too loud.

I shouldn’t be spooked by people who just came to cheer the Bears at the game just like I did.

Be aware of your knee jerk reactions. Maybe you can’t stop them, but you can at least realize them for what they are. They say you are not your conditioning — let’s hope that’s true.

And anyway — I’m sure those people who were taking pictures of themselves at the game share my sentiments about football in general and the Bears in particular. (Insert head smack here…)