COVID19: Math Isn't That Hard

The marina is open for business, and if the traffic we've seen up and down the hill today is any indication, business is kinda booming. Who knows if anyone is taking precautions or carrying a mask "just in case" or considering who might be infected with the virus and not know it?

The event is an in-water boat show with reps from different mid-state dealerships and vendors of boat- and lake-life stuff. I think there are set-ups of wakeboards, tow-lines, towers, and the like, but we haven't seen some of the usual biggies for the annual event - the Monster Energy Drink RV didn't arrive like it normally does, and we didn't see the Budweiser truck with "tappers" on the side go down and stay. All the beer trucks have come back out after delivering.

Maybe it's smaller this year, but the crowd today is as big as ever for the boat show. The field across from our yard is parked full of giant boat trailers and the kind of pickup trucks that cost more than a small house in these parts. Folks loaded-in with boats all day, then there was a "dinnertime lull" we've observed during all the "special event weekends" at the marina. The live music, a guy named Randy Houser, was taking the stage at 8:00, so announced the Facebook page, so the second loading-in started at 7:00'ish and is winding down a little bit now.

After the traffic we've seen the past two weekends and the madness in the parking lot at places like Lowe's and WalMart, I shudder to think what will happen to our local hospitals and their ability to take care of people when COVID gets a foot down here in the Upper Cumberland. DeKalb County has four intensive care beds. Warren has eight. White has four.

Math is hard, but it's not that hard.

Elsewhere in Tennessee and across the nation, cities have erupted in protest of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands - under the knee - of a while policeman in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The situation is grave, but considering how our president and the attorney general have demonstrated that the rule of law is a moving target and doesn't really matter anyway, what's happening is no big surprise. Donald Trump was elected by racists emboldened by his validation that selfishness is not only morally acceptable but a righteous act when those who suffer are "others." His whole agenda is one of white nationalism, so what we are seeing across the country is only to be expected when fuel is thrown on an already smouldering fire.