Indefinite Confinement

            In his Perquimans Weekly column last week, my friend Billy Rowell had a number of suggestions to relieve the monotony of sequestration. I had already done most of them: clean out closets, pull out old photo albums, weed the flower beds, get in touch with old friends. But there was one suggestion that made me nod in agreement: read that novel you’ve been putting off reading.

            That novel, for me, was “A Gentleman from Moscow” by Amor Towles. It turned out to be the most relevant work I could ever have read. It’s about Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a Russian aristocrat in his 30s who returns to Moscow in 1922, only to be arrested for writing a seditious poem and condemned to house arrest in the city’s Metropol Hotel for the rest of his life. There he remains for the next 32 years, a span beautifully chronicled by the author.

            My goodness! Are we condemned to be under house quarantine for the rest of our lives like the Count? Admittedly, The KGB was a fearsome enforcer of Soviet conformity. But aren’t Americans being threatened these days to stay at home…or else? If not for the rest of our lives, how long?

            Here’s where I stand. I believe that President Trump’s instincts were correct in wanting to end mandatory confinement by Easter for those parts of the country where COVID-19 has not taken hold. He was talked out of it by his advisers who peddled panic at the possibility of victims falling by the hundreds of thousands unless Americans cowered in their homes in fear of that invisible enemy. There would be briefings every day, but no mention of the tens of thousands who are killed every year by the common flu, the opioid epidemic, cancer, heart disease, suicides, and automobile accidents. The only possible focus would be on the coronavirus.

            Meanwhile, the country is headed for economic disaster. People living in places like Perquimans County where there is virtually zero chance of infection cannot go to the bank or the library, eat inside a restaurant, go to church on Sunday, or get a haircut.

People who normally look forward to going to work every day now must sit and wait for the promised unemployment check.

            So, what’s the solution? The geniuses in Washington are now cooking up another multi-trillion-dollar piece of legislation that will in part provide work for the unemployed. On infrastructure projects. What nonsense. How many waitresses or hair stylists will applaud the opportunity to fill potholes or scrape rust from the nearest bridge?

            It’s time to let people who do not live in the so-called “hot spots” go back to work. They should do all those things health specialists recommend to minimize exposure to the virus. Sure. But shops and offices should open their shuttered doors to let people go back to work. That’s the best thing they can do for this country and for themselves.

            And another thing. With rare exceptions COVID-19 only kills older people. Kids who catch it recover in no time. So why not let them go back to school instead of barricading them at home where they waste their time playing video games and annoying their parents who have to stay home to watch them.

            Whoever said that the cure is worse than the disease will be proven right if we let this shutdown go on much longer.