LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
We have people who do have that type of expertise writing in this issue of American Consequences . I’m not one of them. The last thing the world needs is more pundits who don’t know what they’re talking about. To be completely frank – speaking strictly between you readers and myself – I sometimes even wonder if the world needs more pundits who do know what they’re talking about. No offense meant to the knowledgeable, but everything they know scares the dickens out of me. I guess this fear serves a useful purpose in making me cautious about contagion. (Although, when my “fight or flight” emotion is triggered, I have to be sure to pick the “flight” option. Punching someone in the snoot violates social-distancing guidelines.) Who am I going to punch, anyway? I’m certainly not going to fly to Wuhan, China and Uber to the wet market and take a swing at the bat meat vendor. Journalists are supposed to provide answers. But all I’ve got are questions, such as the one above... and... Isn’t somebody supposed to be in charge? Our elected leaders are acting like the pandemic is a bad children’s game where they’re all blindfolded and swinging sticks – except they’re clobbering one another instead of the virus piñata. (And, viewed under the microscope, the coronavirus does look like it would be a swell papier-mâché target full of... lethal pathogens. Let’s skip this fiesta.)
America has an extraordinary history of leadership. Every time we’ve faced a great crisis, our nation has produced the great leader that we needed – the right person at the right time. Often, that leader came from relative or complete obscurity. A moderately successful tobacco planter and former colonel in the colonial militia, George Washington became – almost by immaculate conception – the father of our country. Backwoods lawyer and lanky hick Abraham Lincoln won the Civil War. And FDR, a crippled political dabbler, a rich kid who got elected governor of New York State by 1%, gave America hope in the Great Depression and victory in WWII. The coronavirus crisis is doubtlessly no different. The great leader that we need is... Who?... Where?... We haven’t got a clue . This is because the great leader that we need is under curfew and stay-at-home orders, stuck in his house wearing a surgical mask, watching Netflix, and squirting the remote with Purell. “Working from home” is not a viable option for great leaders. If Washington had never left the White House, Emanuel Leutze’s To be completely frank – speaking strictly between you readers and myself – I sometimes evenwonder if theworld needs more pundits who do knowwhat they’re talking about.
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April 2020
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