Thankfully the projected number of deaths in the US has fallen to 60,000, which is higher than a typical seasonal flu but not as bad as the 2017-18 flu which claimed more than 80,000 lives in the US. At the same time we heard that good news, our Governor declared that the public schools are closed for the rest of this academic year. I figure that means the public libraries will also be closed until at least some time in June. We will be thrilled if things begin to reopen in the middle of May, but I'm praying that at least by July the kids will be allowed to attend camps, amusement parks, etc. I'm imagining that the restrictions will probably be gradually removed, and I think it will be a longer time until larger crowds are allowed to assemble which might mean no concerts this summer. I also wonder what that will mean for our church, which has an average attendance around 1,500 people on Sunday mornings? Politically I strongly lean towards the Libertarian position when it comes to many issues (on other issues such as abortion, I lean toward the Republican position). I hope that the government being this intrusive into our daily lives and into the economy doesn't become the norm! As a person who longs to see the government operate within a balanced budget and decrease the national debt, the financial decisions of our government recently have been very distressing to me. The government created the surge in the unemployment rate by requiring many "non-essential" businesses to shut down, and then they are now paying many of those people more than they made when they were working. If you made $400 a week before, you will be receiving $950 a week through unemployment due to the $600 bonus they are giving everyone. Why pay people more than double to stay home than they were paid to do their job?!?! Where is all this money going to come from?!? And then some epidemiologists don't even think that these measures are helpful in terms of ending the virus. If you are interested, look up Dr. Knut Wittkowski, and see what he has to say. He agrees that those with a higher risk (ex. those in nursing homes) should be quarantined right now, but not all school children and other healthy adults who don't have any risk factors. He says that not allowing herd immunity to develop is going to lead to a second wave of COVID-19 in the fall. My personal opinion is that decisions should be made for much smaller areas. ALL of the states don't need to be on "lockdown." Certain states (like NY and NJ) are definitely in a different position than say North Dakota or Wyoming. Similarly, certain counties are in a VERY different position within a state. There are counties in our state that still have as few as ONE case of coronavirus. Why should the "non-essential" businesses, churches, and schools in those counties be closed?!? Even in our county (population of about 91,000) we have fewer than 30 cases and zero deaths. It's a completely different story in Philadelphia, Allentown, and Luzerne County. Well I am definitely not a politician or an epidemiologist. I certainly hope that all of this social distancing and stay-at-home orders are doing more good than harm.
Many, many resources are being made available online these days. An art studio in our area (Independently Made) has been offering free online video tutorials for paintings twice a week. If I were choosing, I would have chosen her lilac painting. I let Nadia pick one, and she did that painting yesterday. It's already hanging on a wall in her bedroom. Today Nadia watched a photography lesson for teens put on for free by Kyle Shutlz. One tv news station had their weather team put three weather lessons online. I don't want the kids to be staring at a screen for too many hours a day so I've been very selective in picking what we will use of the myriad of wonderful options out there. Everything we've been accessing has been free, but yesterday I did buy a personal finance class for middle schoolers for Nadia from Dave Ramsey's site as the price was REALLY marked down. She has one year to finish the 22 lessons, so there's no rush in starting it. Last week I walked over 18 miles, which was a huge improvement for me. The weather was beautiful Sunday through Wednesday. I didn't take a walk on Sunday but spent the time outside cleaning our fence. Monday through Wednesday I walked over 12 miles, but the weather turned cold again yesterday (we even had snow flurries this morning!) so I don't think I'll be logging any more miles this week. I'm hoping to go for a walk on Sunday afternoon. Well the true meaning of Easter is that Jesus died for all of our sins and then ROSE from the grave. We don't need to be in a church building, participate in egg hunts, or gather with extended family to celebrate His death and resurrection.
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