President Trump and the nation’s governors have quibbled for a month over who will give the signal to reopen the country in the wake of the coronavirus.
Trump one day made an iron-fisted claim that the right was his and his only. “I have that total authority,” he said. He backtracked on that exactly 24 hours later, acknowledging, “The governors are responsible. They have to take charge.”
Now he says some governors have overplayed their hand in reopening their states. This is what you call a fluid situation.
Excuse me, but how can the president or a governor make the citizens of the United States do anything?
I posted my true feelings about this dilemma on Facebook a couple of days after the brouhaha, saying, “I won’t need to ask him or anybody else when I can reopen my life. (My wife) Mary Lee is fully capable of deciding that for me.”
Got that, all you other married men out there? When did anyone other than your spouse have the authority to tell you what to do, when you can do it, how you can do it, where you can do it and who can see you do it?
It’s been that way in my household for time immemorial and has been for most other guys who thought — until they got home that evening — that they wore the britches in their house.
My opinion on this matter was confirmed on Facebook by close to 100 people, mostly men, who said my assessment was right-on.
Starting with the most important asset any of us have, whether they’re our own children, grandkids or children of friends, who is going to send a child back to school in August or September with any possibility that they still could be infected? I’ve never known any school officials who would take such a chance by reopening their system amid a crisis like this one.
There have been many irresponsible so-called religious leaders who have defied shelter-in-place and curfew mandates and gone ahead with services during the outbreak. At least one pastor who was so bold has died of the virus.
I am more familiar with the United Methodist Church’s doings than I am other denominations. I simply doubt UMC hierarchy would or could order a church reopened.
What Mississippi sports fan would care to crowd into a football stadium on one of those scorching days of September to watch their favorite team play some creampuff squad? Would a credible chance of beating, say, Alabama make any difference? Not in this lifetime. On second thought, maybe it would.
And what about this crazy talk of playing the college and pro football seasons without fans in the seats? That’s about as dumb as an idea can get, although certainly there are some well-known coaches who would go for it. They are eager to see somebody hit somebody else’s players, the coronavirus be danged.
This goes for any number of such gatherings. Imagine, say, a Willie Nelson concert in the steamy-hot, antiquated Mississippi Coliseum with fans going gaga over the superstar, with a possibility of being infected by the fanatic next to them. Or Jazz Fest in New Orleans and the throngs it always delivers, even if Irma Thomas were wailing away on stage? No thanks.
This country has yet to develop a solid system of testing for the coronavirus. Until it does, the wife says we’re staying put. As the ancient hymn goes, I will trust and obey.
Mac Gordon is a part-time resident of McComb. He is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon @gmail.com.
