Does China get a pass?

No need to tell you the joys of social distancing, the somber trip down empty grocery shelves (way beyond just the aisles that used to feature mega packages of toilet paper), driving by your favorite restaurants and bars and seeing them shuttered, and past empty church parking lots on what should be their busiest day. You already know this because like me you’re living it.

Like most things in America the focus quickly turns to money. The Federal Government is slowly (really, how slow can they go?) working on an economic bailout that you and I will ultimately foot the bill for for years, if not generations, to come. And all because a virus made the jump from animals to humans
in a nondescript Chinese outdoor market. Which brings me to the question of this blog - given the global calamity wrought by this Chinese virus, does China simply get a pass when this crisis is eventually over?

If the Chinese military had masterminded this crisis as an actual attack on the rest of the world they could not have done it any better than what has actually occurred. And make no mistake, military and terrorist organizations worldwide, including ours, are studying this pandemic to learn, with both good and evil intent, the lessons being taught on how quickly humanity can be brought to its knees. And what if this had been an actual biological attack by the Chinese? French President Macron has said we’re at war with this virus, but what if it had actually been an act of war that brought us to where we are today? Who needs expensive military weapons, stockpiles of nuclear bombs, millions of men and women in uniform when all that was really needed was some animals in cages and a lack of any semblance of basic hygiene in Wuhan?

Today’s Denver Post headline reads “A moment when normal changed”. We have no real idea whatever the new normal will look like and the ripple effects from what is going on today can only be guaranteed to be long and far reaching. My wife and I went grocery shopping this morning, standing in line at our local Safeway (will they need to change that name in the new normal?) before dawn to shop not just for ourselves but also for my wife’s parents who are old enough to be solidly entrenched in the ‘high risk’ category. My father in law is not well and I’ll leave it at that. I was actually glad he could not go shopping on his own to see what modern America’s grocery distribution system has been reduced to. Every generation aspires to leave the world a better place and those of a certain generation today can only shake their heads and wonder what has the world come to?

Like I said above, much of the focus is, and will continue to be, on the financial aspects of this crisis. My nieces and nephews, just starting out in their careers, barely have any recollection of the last financial downturn but I hazard a guess they will not soon forget what is coming before things eventually (spelled h o p e f u l l y) take a turn for the better. Age-wise, a year ago some of them could have been on those Florida spring break beaches thumbing their noses at the rest of the world and loudly proclaiming their pride in being the ‘ME First!’ Generation. If they’re lucky they may live to regret their youthful arrogance; if they succumb along with an unhealthy proportion of the rest of us, they’ll be just another data point of lost economic contribution.

We can all hope for a speedy (however you define that term) recovery. Some would argue we were due for an economic downturn anyway. I am not saying, nor do I believe, that China had any malevolent intent behind what has happened, and what will be in the days, months, and god forbid, years to come. Yet if for no other reason than basic accountability, China should not just get a pass on what their latest export has wrought.