A Beach Town opens in South Carolina.
I wrote this quickly for my Facebook page but damn I like it, and I’m very hard on myself.
There’s a meme going around North Myrtle Beach, SC, that basically says; “if you’ve been going to work everyday copy & paste this.”
They talk about fear being much worse than the pandemic. They see politicians without masks, and not socially distancing.
It’s not real to a lot of people — yet.
In the early 1980s, I had a friend who was sick.
It took us years to get a diagnosis though for the last year, prior to the diagnosis, we suspected….
AIDS took my beloved friend Bill Stritch on 10/09/85. He was the first of many.
This isn’t my first rodeo.
A light, a big light, went out of New York in the mid-1980s through parts of the 1990s.
I was a spoiled princess when Billy was sick.
By the time Larry Easton, another very beloved friend, was very sick in 1990, I spent a day helping him go over his will, insurance policies, and much more.
Then I stayed the night.
I knew, because I knew the way AIDS was spread, I couldn’t contract it from him.
Two days later he died.
I knew how AIDS was spread in large part because of Dr. Fauci.
“Gods Love We Deliver” was founded in my best friend’s apartment building. Billy had lived in that building so it was fitting. They were the first org to deliver food to everyone who asked — who needed because of AIDS — no other questions asked.
We the people of NY had to do everything because the government was sure late to the rodeo.
The first AIDS Walk — Nicki Garcia had many people sponsor her. I went for moral support.
I didn’t count all the memorial services I went to.
We were so young. It was so unfair.
I understand not understanding this pandemic.
I understand not taking it seriously because it hasn’t happened here yet.
But we soft-opened our hotels, and some stores, this past Friday. Tomorrow, Monday, May 4th, 2020, we’re opening the outdoor parts of many restaurants.
I can’t imagine going. I would love to go. I live for outdoor restaurants on the beach.
I get being scared of going completely broke.
I totally get that.
I get wanting the economy to be running full throttle. It can’t. I understand that too.
We can’t say that our government is doing its best. It’s not.
We need to learn from countries that have attacked this head on. We need a universal income and great health care. That’s not up for debate. That’s not socialist. That will help us return to some semblance of normal while we’re getting a vaccine ready.
I get the feeling life has to go on.
I would love nothing more.
“The summer of Pia” has turned into “my world is becoming increasingly small. Until now I could hop onto a plane, a bus, or a car and go somewhere. Now….”
Last month I felt much grief about that one.
I get that you see Hollywood stars sheltering in place, and well they’re Hollywood stars.
New York — it’s New York. Some of you think that New York deserves this for various reasons I won’t go into now.
Covid-19 cases are increasing in Tennessee and North Carolina, among other states. I mention those two states because we get many tourists from them.
The numbers in North Myrtle Beach aren’t going to go up dramatically tomorrow.
But they will go up — a lot.
We, who live here, full time, will find it even harder to get toilet paper, and food sweet necessary for living food.
If you don’t understand the concept of “exponential” please learn it.
And understand that fear is a good thing right now. To say you’re not fearful is being ignorant. I would love to say that more kindly, more gently. But I can’t.
2,909 people died of Covid-19 in the 24 hours ending this past Friday.
A lot of people are confused because many of those people had other conditions. Shouldn’t their deaths have been recorded as “complications of dementia?” “heart disease?” and the like?
No, because the cause of death is always the condition that actually caused the person to die.
Many times it would be recorded as the first condition because for whatever reason it comforted the families.
Covid-19 might be greatly underreported for those reasons. But every person who died and had Covid-19, their death has to be recorded as a pandemic death. We need a record. We need people to understand how grave this is.
Georgia (where we get many tourists from) reopened. Some of my best friends live there now. They’re all staying home.
Fulton County (Atlanta) had 1,232 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday. That’s a per capita rate 5 times New York City’s. (stolen from Jim Gath). See what exponential means? Don’t? You will learn.
I want to live.
More than that I want every person I love or even met once or even heard about to live.
I want the young women in my life to be living their lives fully. I want that desperately.
But they get that they have to forgo today’s pleasures for tomorrow. They are heroines to me. They know who they are.
You’re thinking that I’m being dramatic. Just a drama queen. I hope that when this is over I will find out that I was a drama queen.
