Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Unfortunately, we are doomed to all hang separately.
I’m not referring to the partisan chasm (not divide) in this nation. I’m instead referring to the fact the, depending on your state, more or fewer citizens are going to die.
That dichotomy has already begun. Everyone has seen the chart that tracks how many more cases of COVID-19 Tennessee has than Kentucky. (Tennessee students weren’t kept home until March 21!) That disparity grows each day.
States whose governors recognize the coronavirus pandemic for what it is will have many fewer casualties than those who take the cavalier attitude championed by Fox News. Republican governors — most of which (Ohio’s Mike DeWine is one of the exceptions) owe Trump everything — will be unable to resist reopening schools, businesses, restaurants, and even amusement parks once Trump declares that everything is OK and/or that it’s totally pro-life to shrug at a possible 500,000 needless deaths.
People’s quality of life already depends so much on their ZIP code. Now their likelihood of death will, too.
–30–