You’ve probably already seen
some of the videos of people around the world, stepping to their doors at 7 pm, local time, and cheering and applauding the front line protecting and rescuing us from the coronavirus pandemic engulfing the globe. The entire staff of every hospital in the nation (right down to the cleaning crews), every Fire and Police Department in every city and state.
Like this:
Coronavirus: New Yorkers applaud medical workers | AFP | Mar 29, 2020
and this:
New York Fire Department Applauds New York Healthcare Workers | Apr 3, 2020
Employees of the New York Fire Department lined up their fire engines and sounded their sirens outside of hospitals to show their support for the medical workers battling the coronavirus, Friday, April 3.
And this:
NBC Nightly News | Mar 26, 2020
As nurses, doctors and healthcare workers change shifts around the world, residents stand on their balconies to applaud the frontline heroes.
Also, some of the crazy folk at retail stores and groceries and fast-food outlets:
Colorado | Costco | May 16, 2020
Van Nuys, CA | Target | May 11, 2020
Now, we don’t know how long
this pandemic will run rampant through the human population, but it is not going away anytime soon, that’s plain as daylight after a total eclipse of the sun.
So the courageous and kind people who are risking their lives every day to save ours, their efforts must never be forgotten.
What better way to show our collective thanks to them all than a national holiday unlike any before it. Instead of another national holiday where we pack up the family and travel to share the day with friends and family across the land?
This one will be done to reflect what happened here and around the world in 2020. Everyone in every nation around the world stayed home, if they could, if they weren’t essential personnel. They stayed home and spent time with their family, nuclear family and non-nuclear families alike, they stayed home.
From Maine to Michigan, from Oregon to Texas, everyone just stayed home.
So what would we all do on #StayHomeDay?
We’d stay home and remember:
- How it felt to HAVE to stay home, endlessly
- How quickly the digital wealth of the rich can disappear when the working class stays home for a couple weeks
- That bottled water and toilet paper are the most precious survival supplies available
- That our kids & grandkids are more interesting than we think they are, once we spend a couple weeks in close quarters with them
- That preparing a family meal is a bonding experience when you do it right
By election night
we might be in wave two of the pandemic. Because there will be more than one, it’s what the slow-roll to reduce hospital care ballooning all at once meant — instead of one giant flood, it’s going to trickle in over a few months to a year or longer. That ‘or longer’ part makes me really nervous.
So the people in the healthcare SERVICE part of their industry (staff of hospitals, clinics, etc.) are in for a long LONG year, filled with shortages, lack of sleep, and a flood of patients who could at any time infect them and possibly kill them.
For the Home Delivery industry which has rallied to keep goods and food moving, even when the rest of us were cowering in our homes, gladly overpaying for delivered food and supplies (toilet paper and bottled water). Who also risked their lives, so that the rest of us could still get burgers and pizza and chinese and indian food, hot and delicious and most importantly, cooked by someone else.
For the grocery store & retail store clerks who’ve been assaulted by raging customers with whatever was at hand, when advised they’d need to use common sense and put a damned mask on to be in and shop at the store. For all of them having to deal with all of the smart-asses who are apparently at the same time dumbasses, who spent time unmasked with a huge crowd and now wants to shout right into the store employee’s face.
For all of that, I say they will have earned a national holiday.
In the spirit of those already standing outside, cheering and applauding at 7 pm local time, to honor and support the Front Line healthcare workers & first responders during this pandemic? Let’s do this every year from now on, starting on July 7, 2020 at 7 pm local time.
Stand at your door and cheer and applaud for a single minute.
RAISE YOUR VOICES and let them know we honor and appreciate all that they do for us.
7/7/7 | July 7 at 7 pm local time
Cheer/applaud for 1 minute
originally written on April 17, 2020