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We will be right here on the day it finally burns
I elaborated my previous post into an e-mail, which I communicated this afternoon to the governor's office after leaving a message by phone with a staffer. Calls in person emphasize immediacy, but print always feels more permanent to me.
Dear Office of Governor Baker,
I spoke earlier with one of your staffers, but I am writing to reinforce my strong reservations about even cautiously beginning to reopen the state on May 18. I have been very impressed with the governor's handling of the COVID-19 crisis so far, especially in comparison with the Republican governors of other states: he has been proactive, protective, and his willingness to oppose his own party and president has been admirable and life-saving. I would not like to see the Commonwealth, out of optimism or economic anxiety, undo all of its caution and compassion and set us up for a lethal spike in June. Nothing has fundamentally changed about this pandemic since March except for the numbers of the dead. We do not yet have comprehensive testing and contact tracing. We may be at the forefront of antibody research, but we do not have sufficient data in hand. Masks in public—a crucial disruption of asymptomatic transmission—have just this week become mandatory statewide rather than advised. I understand that our infection and hospitalization numbers are trending downward and I am glad of it, but with a disease with a well-documented two-week incubation period, we need weeks beyond that window of the numbers holding steadily low. If Massachusetts' schools have been closed through the rest of the academic year and daycare shuttered at least until the end of June, I do not understand why the state is even contemplating reactivating businesses before either of those dates. I write as a person with multiple medical conditions who is at elevated risk from COVID-19 but also from not being able to see my relevant doctors since the state of emergency was declared: it is not simple or necessarily safe for me to exist in lockdown. I would rather spend the summer effectively quarantined than contribute to the second wave of pandemic almost certainly already loosed on this country by the murderous self-interest of its president and the callousness of officials who abet him. Please do not join their delusion that there is as yet a normal to get back to. Please maintain social distancing, mandatory masks, essential services and support for the workers who keep them going. Pro-infection astroturf protesters are not representative of the needs of the state's population. I would like as many of us as possible to be here to disagree politically next year.
Thank you sincerely—
I think it was very polite of me not even to mention the ethical artichoke.
Dear Office of Governor Baker,
I spoke earlier with one of your staffers, but I am writing to reinforce my strong reservations about even cautiously beginning to reopen the state on May 18. I have been very impressed with the governor's handling of the COVID-19 crisis so far, especially in comparison with the Republican governors of other states: he has been proactive, protective, and his willingness to oppose his own party and president has been admirable and life-saving. I would not like to see the Commonwealth, out of optimism or economic anxiety, undo all of its caution and compassion and set us up for a lethal spike in June. Nothing has fundamentally changed about this pandemic since March except for the numbers of the dead. We do not yet have comprehensive testing and contact tracing. We may be at the forefront of antibody research, but we do not have sufficient data in hand. Masks in public—a crucial disruption of asymptomatic transmission—have just this week become mandatory statewide rather than advised. I understand that our infection and hospitalization numbers are trending downward and I am glad of it, but with a disease with a well-documented two-week incubation period, we need weeks beyond that window of the numbers holding steadily low. If Massachusetts' schools have been closed through the rest of the academic year and daycare shuttered at least until the end of June, I do not understand why the state is even contemplating reactivating businesses before either of those dates. I write as a person with multiple medical conditions who is at elevated risk from COVID-19 but also from not being able to see my relevant doctors since the state of emergency was declared: it is not simple or necessarily safe for me to exist in lockdown. I would rather spend the summer effectively quarantined than contribute to the second wave of pandemic almost certainly already loosed on this country by the murderous self-interest of its president and the callousness of officials who abet him. Please do not join their delusion that there is as yet a normal to get back to. Please maintain social distancing, mandatory masks, essential services and support for the workers who keep them going. Pro-infection astroturf protesters are not representative of the needs of the state's population. I would like as many of us as possible to be here to disagree politically next year.
Thank you sincerely—
I think it was very polite of me not even to mention the ethical artichoke.