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conserve humanity
2020-Mar-27, Friday 05:10 pmI have the letter now.
It's the official notice that I qualify as an essential worker for access to our technology services in our office. I'm supposed to keep it with me in case any law enforcement officers question why I'm out and about during the stricter shelter-in-place orders for Minnesota that become effective today at 11:59pm. It's signed by our local director, and it has all of the necessary legalese to specify the nature of our exemption.
This whole experience is weird.
While I remain adamant that climate change is the #1 threat that requires our attention globally, that particular problem occurs on much greater timescales than virus proliferation during a pandemic. It seems to me that not a single thing we do at my conservation organization simply must be accomplished during the next few weeks. All of these work-from-home preparations strike me as slightly frivolous for this singular moment. Maybe we'll rely on them a month from now.
This first phase of epidemic peak has people unnerved because it's so new to us. Why not just give people some new extra "vacation" hours for this special event? Keep your sanity today. Prepare your home life now. Be work-productive later. We're in this conservation effort for the long haul, not for short-term productivity. Unlike industry, we are a non-profit whose income is tied to charity rather than daily routines of sales transactions. Frankly, donations should be going to more immediate concerns for a few weeks.
I mean, for a short window of time, we are the threatened species needing helpful intervention. The problem is not that a majority of us will die from SARS-CoV-2 infection. We won't. The problem is that the minority (but widespread) deaths globally would disrupt our systems far more than the current impositions. We want to conserve both our human population and our psychological humanity. Give humans a break. Conserve humanity, with every nuance that phrase implies.
As far as I know, my coworker and I (he's full-time while I'm part-time) are the only 2 "essential worker" exceptions out of about 180 employees in our 3-state service area. In theory, any staff who tend bison herds would also be exempted, but I don't know how extensive is their involvement in the daily life of bison (YouTube video) to warrant the exemption.
Anyway, I have my letter of exemption today. I don't know how I feel about it. Nothing yet, I guess. I hope, though, that there's no need to use it while leaving home to visit the server room.
It's the official notice that I qualify as an essential worker for access to our technology services in our office. I'm supposed to keep it with me in case any law enforcement officers question why I'm out and about during the stricter shelter-in-place orders for Minnesota that become effective today at 11:59pm. It's signed by our local director, and it has all of the necessary legalese to specify the nature of our exemption.
This whole experience is weird.
While I remain adamant that climate change is the #1 threat that requires our attention globally, that particular problem occurs on much greater timescales than virus proliferation during a pandemic. It seems to me that not a single thing we do at my conservation organization simply must be accomplished during the next few weeks. All of these work-from-home preparations strike me as slightly frivolous for this singular moment. Maybe we'll rely on them a month from now.
This first phase of epidemic peak has people unnerved because it's so new to us. Why not just give people some new extra "vacation" hours for this special event? Keep your sanity today. Prepare your home life now. Be work-productive later. We're in this conservation effort for the long haul, not for short-term productivity. Unlike industry, we are a non-profit whose income is tied to charity rather than daily routines of sales transactions. Frankly, donations should be going to more immediate concerns for a few weeks.
I mean, for a short window of time, we are the threatened species needing helpful intervention. The problem is not that a majority of us will die from SARS-CoV-2 infection. We won't. The problem is that the minority (but widespread) deaths globally would disrupt our systems far more than the current impositions. We want to conserve both our human population and our psychological humanity. Give humans a break. Conserve humanity, with every nuance that phrase implies.As far as I know, my coworker and I (he's full-time while I'm part-time) are the only 2 "essential worker" exceptions out of about 180 employees in our 3-state service area. In theory, any staff who tend bison herds would also be exempted, but I don't know how extensive is their involvement in the daily life of bison (YouTube video) to warrant the exemption.
Anyway, I have my letter of exemption today. I don't know how I feel about it. Nothing yet, I guess. I hope, though, that there's no need to use it while leaving home to visit the server room.