conserve humanity

[mellowtigger]

I 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.

Comments

[13cbenzene]

Hi Terry! Here, it's been one week of lockdown for France now (but universities and research labs have been closed for two week) How is it going for you? How do you take care of you? Wish you all the best, love, Christophe

[mellowtigger]

This article shows charts for a few nation and all USA states. It looks like France needs to flatten the infection curve too. It's good that your rules have changed recently. Here in Minnesota, we've already had mild restrictions for 2 weeks. But our curve didn't change much, so now we're using stricter rules. That's why I now have the letter from work granting me a legal exception.
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2020/03/18/u-s-coronavirus-growth-rates-show-many-states-could-close-behind-new-york/5072663002/

It doesn't change my daily routine very much, really. I will soon need to do laundry in the bathtub, though. That will be a new experience. I guess I'll just add the detergent and then scrub clothes together for a while. For a few years, I have taken my clothes to the local laundromat, but now I don't want exposure to touching so many quarters from the money machine used to pay the washing machines.

Working is very different, and I'm not enjoying that part. But non-work is about the same, since I don't get out to socialize much or travel. It's just me and my cat at home, and she doesn't carry SARS-CoV-2, so we're okay here. As long as I can still get new groceries, I can do this for a long time. It's similar to what Minnesotans do anyway, through our very long and cold winters. :) This time, however, the stay-at-home experience arrives after we've already spent 1/3 of the year indoors.

I hope you stay safe too. The virus here is affecting unusual groups of people, much younger than we saw in Asia or Europe so far. But as long as crime doesn't get any worse here in my "bad" part of the city, I expect to survive another year until a vaccine is available. (Assuming the first vaccines don't use thimerosal, which I'm prohibited from receiving... otherwise, I might have to wait for a different vaccine.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/19/younger-adults-are-large-percentage-coronavirus-hospitalizations-united-states-according-new-cdc-data/

Stay in touch. I'll keep writing on this blog frequently, just to let the world know I'm still here. :)

[mrdreamjeans]

I have an Essential Worker letter, too, though it doesn't matter for me, as I live where I work on a part time basis.

[mellowtigger]

That's convenient! At my job, people were warned that even if they were housed on a building on conservation land that we own, they are still prohibited from working outdoors if it was not a protected activity. Only indoors work, with certain legal exceptions. Strange times.