Read on Twitter
I usually leave this stuff alone & I am not going to dignify the insane column I just (mistakenly) read in a local opinion section with a retweet. But it’s been a long few months & I ain’t just going to let this one go:
Early on in the pandemic, two of the modeling experts we consulted with about how to respond to this virus showed us a table. This was March. The data was still shaky and the progression of the virus was not well understood. But that table was very clear.
It was a comparison of modeled deaths in Chicago if mitigation efforts were taken versus if no mitigation efforts were taken.The 2nd number was 6 times higher than the 1st. The Governor & I stared at that piece of paper for a long time.Soon after,JB issued the stay at home order.
That piece of paper has stayed on his desk ever since. I know he looks at it every day. I know I think about it every day. That information, just like almost everything we know about Covid-19, was imperfect. But it did accurately represent the consequences of inaction.
The choice was more deaths or less deaths. That is not, in any way, to diminish the extraordinary & diverse ways people have suffered terribly over the last 5 months. But in any terrible crisis you must - YOU MUST - hone in on one thing that is going to guide you.
For us in Illinois, that guiding principle was and is reducing loss of life due to Covid. As Governor Pritzker has said many times - you can’t have a livelihood without a life.
Every Governor had access to data like what we saw very early on in this crisis. Some - Democrat & Republican - chose to act. Some didn’t. I’m not here to crow over one choice or another. But don’t pretend it wasn’t a choice.
And I’m not here to say we have gotten everything right. Of course we haven’t. That’s an impossible task with Covid no matter who you are. But there were bad and less bad choices. A lot of times making the less bad choice meant defying all political instincts.
As the Governor said today, this virus humbles you. What you know this week might not be what you know next week. The ground you stand on always feels shaky. But you have to choose your ground. We chose Doctors and science. Other people chose...other things.
Every death - every single one - has been one too many. Death rates are not some game, some statistic to tally up to see who won. There is no “winning.” Everyone gone is a parent, a child, a friend, a loved one.
One of the things the Governor & I share is that we both lost parents at a young age. You look at death differently your whole life. I can’t see a story about a person dying without thinking intimately about what their family is going through.I relive the shock of my Mom’s death.
I know the Governor thinks the same way. I’ve seen how he looks at the death total every day - I can see his mind spinning if there was something more he should have done.I’ve seen his frantic worry these last few weeks - even as things look better - that we could face a setback.
There is no escaping the full weight of death in our jobs right now. It haunts you late at night and early in the morning. It steals joy from things that used to bring you happiness. It makes you angry at people you love. It haunts your dreams and dogs your steps.
You want to argue about regions & reopening & sports & schools - the costs & benefits of it all - go right ahead. That’s healthy. We’ll be debating those things for years. We should. This crisis is forcing us all to face hard questions about life & our values in ways unexpected.
But here’s what you don’t get to do - write some dangerously stupid crap that is getting dunked on all over the Intertubes & instead of being brave enough to just admit you were wrong - try to diminish & disparage a genuinely good man to distract from your own moral ineptitude.
No, JB Pritzker doesn’t know what it is to be broke - but he does know what it is to be grief stricken over personal loss. He knows what it is to spend your whole life wishing a lost loved one back, to battle the overwhelming nature of grief. He knows THAT misery intimately.
Cowardice is an unseemly trait in normal times. In times like these, you court the shame of your descendants.
Goodnight, thank you, this is all I’ll say on this matter, & if you are screaming incoherently at me in my mentions - it’s likely I muted you awhile ago.
Goodnight, thank you, this is all I’ll say on this matter, & if you are screaming incoherently at me in my mentions - it’s likely I muted you awhile ago.
