- It is time.
- Over the last few weeks I have, half-jokingly, upgraded Wise County's DEFCON level in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. I make no such light-hearted remarks today. I do not consider myself to be an alarmist. If anything, I'm much too slow to act by nature. But I now believe -- no, I know -- we are watching a disaster unfold in this place we love and call home.
- We are now at DEFCON 1 in Wise County.
- Over the last three weeks, you all have a friend or a relative who has contracted the disease. It can kill. It has killed. And it will kill again. I realize I bring no credentials to the table, and no one has selected me to be a county spokesman. But I have a bullhorn and with that bullhorn I make an appeal to you for the greater good. It is an appeal to those who care about the place that we call home, who care about their friends, their family, and strangers. But it is also a desperate appeal to those who don't seem to care at all.
- We've all heard it: "If I get it, I get it. I've got to live my life." Can I stop you right there for a second? The disease is not about you because it does not stop with you. Judge Melton Cude is clinging to life because someone gave him the virus. It took a ride on that someone and then looked for other carriers and victims at the quickest and earliest opportunity -- duplicating itself silently and in the blink of an eye with horrifying success. It found him. And the next person it finds, and it is finding someone at this very moment, may or may not be you, but it will most certainly be someone who is loved by others. And it might, just might, go through you to get there.
- Wise County is more susceptible to spreading the disease than others. Even in large communities where the virus has actively spread, people have their work circle and then their social circle, but those circles do not interact. Not here. We go to work with one another and then go socialize with one another. The two groups intersect everywhere and anywhere and at all times. It is a perfect storm for the spread of the virus. We remained virtually unscathed in the first wave in the spring and the second wave in the summer. Not now. It is everywhere, and it is on the move. From schools, to the courthouse, to a car dealership, and everywhere in between -- we are in a state of emergency.
- I received the following message earlier this week, and I cannot stop thinking about it. The individual took issue with my disdain for those who I had seen not wear a mask in Brookshires. I'll just leave it here: "I don’t consistently wear my mask but I promise I will when we see society as concerned about other issues that claim more lives than Covid has or will. DUI, tobacco, abortion, domestic violence, the list can go on forever."
- My appeal ends with a very uncharacteristic harsh plea from me. It is time for the bullshit attitudes to stop. Put on a mask. Take precautions. Treat yourself as an active carrier.
- <Deep breath. A cautious, frightening deep breath.>
- From the local hospital:
- Brian Hand out of Chico reached out to me yesterday with his own personal experience. It's moving and carries with it an admission we should all be willing to make: "I was wrong."
- Texas hospitalizations: +24. A misleading number for what we are about to see.
- Tarrant County hospitalization numbers which are more applicable:
- Messenger: Above the Fold
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