[charley]

Originally Posted by theoddz

Dear Wife and I live in central Texas, in an area that is about an hour an and half from any of the sizeable metropolitan cities in Texas. We're not really what you'd call "rural", but we have decent shopping, meaning no Costco nearby, but a couple of Sam's Clubs and the usual chain and Texas grocery stores, like HEB, Aldi's and such. I'm not sure what the population is in this area, but I'm certain that it's much smaller than anywhere else, except Maine and Iowa, that I have ever lived in my life. It's okay. I'm getting used to it!!! LOL

So yesterday, Dear Wife and I had to get out to Jackson Hewitt to sign and file our federal income tax return. The branch where we were going is located right inside the door of a local WalMart supercenter. Now, I have to say that I have not gotten out of the house in the last 2 weeks, except to get the mail at the mailbox cluster in our neighborhood. Dear Wife has made one or two trips to the grocery store to do curbside pickups for our groceries. What I saw on our local roads and in the parking lot of that WalMart supercenter literally floored me!!! It's like frippin' CHRISTMAS at WalMart and on the roads!!!! I mean CROWDS!!! We circled the parking lot and front door area of that WalMart and there were people flooding in and out with their shopping buggies, families, including small children and BABIES!! One guy had a McDonald's fast food bag in his hand, eating hand to mouth!!! No one was wearing a mask, or gloves or practicing social distancing!!! Here we were, she and I, with our industrial sized bottle of hand sanitizer, our boxes of nitrile gloves and our Lysol spray, being so careful to watch everything we touched, and then clean it right away, and these fools were just out there like it was Christmas!! Dear Wife nearly went into a full fledged panic attack and I had to calm her down and assure her that we were NOT NOT NOT going "in there" or anywhere near those dumbass people. I didn't care if our tax returns took until perdition to be signed and filed.

All I could think was........we're fucked. This is exactly how this disease is going to spread and, eventually, consume this nation, I'm sure. Why and how people can possibly be this stupid is just beyond the beyonds to me.

When our nation entered the War on Terrorism, back in the early 2000's (2003), my Pop, who was part of the Greatest Generation, and who lived through both the Great Depression and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, made a very profound observation. He said that he couldn't believe the way that this country, the USA, was acting, and that to a casual observer, it was impossible to tell that we were a "nation at war". He said that there was absolutely no evidence that the average American citizen was "sacrificing" anything.....except the military communities. We are, apparently, now a nation of people who, by and large, refuse to make any kind of sacrifice for our common good, even when it involves our very lives. We won't be inconvenienced, go out of our way or think of anyone but ourselves and our own wants, desires and goals. If it's not in our direct "bubble", it doesn't affect us and does not warrant any direct regard or action on our part. So much for "pulling together", which I'm not so sure that this country remembers how to do.

This is dangerous, folks. I think we're fucked, if this keeps up.

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

~Theo~

How true - this = on a smaller level (we have less population) = has happened here in Canada as well. Premiers here have gotten angry with their citizens in their news TV briefs about how people are ignoring stay-at-home (at the time) requests), but now have had to institute orders (backed up by criminal fines/penalties).

For example, even though people knew about the pandemic, 99 of the 135 people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in St. John's, Newfoundland contracted COVID-19 out of attending wakes at Caul’s Funeral Home, March 15-17.

Unfortunately, this has all turned quite ugly, because:

"The fallout for family and friends who attended the wakes and funerals, including the more than 150 who reportedly packed into a chapel at Caul’s to say goodbye to Ms. Fleming, has been swift and, at times, ugly. They say they’re getting death threats, online harassment and have become scapegoats in a province where little more than two weeks ago there were no cases of COVID-19."