Children under 18 make up 22% of North Carolina’s population.
Children under 18 make up 3% of North Carolina’s Covid cases.
This fact is important in any discussion about the risks and rewards of having in-person school this year.
I haven’t heard this fact anywhere. Maybe you have?
Feel free to share it.
Source: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article241168731.html
In terms of usefulness in American politics, fear and shame have a quick half-life. Anyone can get the public riled up over something scary, but eventually people get tired, numb, or just “over it.” The returns diminish over time.
This kind of explains the Trump presidency. “Many people,” as Trump would say, have grown tired of the drama. If they weren’t before, the year of Our Lord 2020 pushed them over the edge.
Democrats have the best opportunity in a generation to take back power. The problem is they’ve lost their political aim, and they might squander it.
Here’s an example from North Carolina:
This was posted today. The North Carolina Democratic Party is attempting to shame Dan Forest and Republicans for having a fundraiser where people are gathered without masks.
It looks like a really nice evening. Most (sane) people would love to enjoy an evening like that. Judging from the looks of things, I bet some good BBQ was served.
But not in 2020! Today, we shame and berate our fellow citizens for wanting to enjoy life, for wanting to feel a shred of normalcy in this messed up time. It’s sad, in an “if I can’t be happy, no one else can” kind of way. It’s also stupid politics.
Today, the C.D.C. came out in favor of opening public schools. Here’s a notable quote from the press release:
“School closures have disrupted normal ways of life for children and parents, and they have had negative health consequences on our youth. CDC is prepared to work with K-12 schools to safely reopen while protecting the most vulnerable.”
https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/new-cdc-guidelines-come-down-hard-in-favor-of-opening-schools/19201905/
People want to feel normal again. They want their kids to have a real education. Democrats, ignoring what people want, are running on disruption, the abnormal.
The clock is ticking on this strategy. Remember, fear and shame have a quick political half-life. Democrats seems to be missing the evidence that Covid might as well. The recent spike of cases in the South and West is flattening. If the numbers aren’t going up around November 3, then all of this could absolutely backfire.
More importantly, Democrats need to treat voters with respect. Americans know it’s bad right now. They can’t avoid it. They don’t need daily reminders from a political party.
An elitist attitude got Democrats in trouble in 2010. It could happen again in 2020 if they don’t start offering up real solutions to get kids in schools and country folks eating BBQ without a side of shame.
There is an average of 10.86 hospitalized covid patients in each county in North Carolina.
1,086 / 100 (counties) = 10.86 patients per county
Source: https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard/hospitalizations
There are 1,553,334 public school students in North Carolina.
That’s an average of 15,533 students per county.
Source: https://www.publicschoolreview.com/north-carolina
As you might expect after seeing the first figure, our health care system is not being overrun. In fact, the number of “in use” hospital beds has decreased while covid “positives” have increased over the past month.
Source: https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard/hospitalizations
As we do not have a cure for Covid-19, these numbers are likely to look very similar by the end of 2020.
So…
How long do you want to keep schools shut down?
When is it worth the risk to open them up again?
I think it is now.
If it gets bad, we can always shut it down. But we should absolutely try.
Disclaimer: I have an agenda. It’s called my children’s future.
Today, I ate lunch in downtown Fayetteville at a place called Agora. Try it. It’s good. But, it got me thinking.
Per wikipedia: Theย agoraย (/หรฆษกษrษ/;ย Ancient Greek:ย แผฮณฮฟฯฮฌย agorรก) was a centralย public spaceย in ancientย Greekย city-states. It is the best representation of city formโs response to accommodate the social and political order of the polis.[1]ย The literal meaning of the word is “gathering place” or “assembly”. The agora was the center of the athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life in the city.[2]ย Theย Ancient Agora of Athensย is the best-known example.
Per Atlas Obscura (a really cool site): But what marked the Agora with everlasting glory was the other commodity traded and peddled daily: ideas. The Agora was the meeting grounds and hang out spot for ancient Athenians, where members of the elected democracy assembled to discuss affairs of state, noblemen came to conduct business, ordinary citizens got together to meet up with friends and watch performers, and where the famed philosophers doused their listeners with wisdom (or rubbish).
Downtown was exceptionally busy today. It’s been that way lately.
After lunch, I passed protesters camping out at the Market House. Yesterday, there was a larger protest on Hay Street. It got a little rowdy.
Our police chief was right in the middle of it.
There’s an idealistic clash in America right now. It’s a war of ideas about what the Nation was, is, and should be moving forward. A similar war is raging over what Fayetteville should be. We’re being tested. But at least we have a place to show up and present those ideas that’s not the internet. When people meet face to face, they often find they have more in common than they think. Truth emerges eventually when we listen to one another.
Covid has destroyed many of our communal traditions that hold us together as a city. We’re not going to church, ballgames, and Fourth of July fireworks shows. It’s hard to listen when you’re sitting at home. The virus isn’t going away anytime soon. In the meantime, at least we have a public space where people are going to hash it out.
America is full of ideas. You’re free to peddle yours daily in downtown Fayetteville, be they wisdom or rubbish.
Fayetteville was in the Washington Post today.
You should read the article. It’s about race.
“The divisions are not always predictable.”
“In Fayetteville, many young activists have cared little about renaming Fort Bragg or what the city does with the Market House โ even as a diverse coalition calls for it to be torn down โ but they have become particularly incensed over the words painted on the street around the structure, which they say symbolize the overcautiousness of a council not wanting to offend.”
I think the author gets it wrong about the “unpredictability” of the divides. Of course, I started a blog to write about them, so I’m biased.
My take: the divisions are alive and well and paint will do nothing to solve them. In fact, this paint job probably made them worse by angering both sides.
But that’s my take. Make your own decisions about these issues.
You live here.
Cross Creek Divide 