Previously on This Just In…

The update:

Some reactions to the blog on Facebook:

That was an outstanding column. It articulated what I was feeling today but did not have the words to say what was on my mind. I stopped by school to pick up some things from my classroom. I stood alone in a silent music room that should have been filled with students. I saw all the instruments they love to play. My classes are all about making music together, improvising and creating and never knowing quite what is going to happen. Sometimes it sounds great, sometimes not so great, but it’s a living and ever changing dynamic that you just cannot get communicating with students online, all separate in their houses.

I am awesome at what I do. Not bragging, just saying that teaching elementary music is my thing and my students LOVE my class. Now that interaction and all that learning is taken from me and from them.

It is so huge a loss I’m not able to cry about it yet. It is too big. My students and I were asked to sacrifice something that was precious to us. And I am not really sure it was necessary. Those in power should damn well make sure sacrifices like that are necessary.

The article says it better than I can. But it acknowledges the magnitude of my loss and my grief and gives it dignity.

Every time someone reminds me that I need to “stay the F home” to save lives that takes away my dignity as a human being and completely disregards all my students and I have given up for others. Kids rarely get COVID.

Ruth Young, West Allis, WI

Great article! I am a retired Peds ICU nurse and chronically ill. I will not let fear enslave me! Life is fatal….😕

Jolynn Myers, Mount Horeb, WI

Once again, Ruth Young

I have been feeling that these lock downs are not so much an attack on the virus as an attack on our way of life. I kept thinking I was being irrational. Now I feel validated.

I’m a bit of a risk taker myself and I’ll admit that has bit me in the butt at times, but it definitely makes it hard for me to relate to people who are cowering in fear over this virus. I have lived such a rich and full life because I embrace risk:

I shoot fireworks professionally in the summers (not this summer.) If I were afraid of that risk I would have missed some of the best experiences of my life.

I started a new career in physical therapy in 2008 and worked per diems in places all over the state, jumping in to cover for therapists so that I might have 12 brand new patients and a new computer system plus the layout of the building to learn on the fly. If I had been too scared to possibly fail I never could have done that. And of course, working as a physical therapist assistant helping people to walk there was always the chance someone could fall. Especially when you had to back off and see if they could really do what they needed to do to be able to go home. So much risk but they couldn’t go home if someone had to be holding onto the gait belt every move they made.

I went back to teaching and taught in inner city schools before ending up in the burbs. There were no guarantees I could reach those kids and no guarantee on any day that that wasn’t the day a couple kids were going to get into a fight in my room, but I was there for them every day, come what may. If I was too risk averse I couldn’t have walked into that school to try to teach them and help them.

I’m not saying we should all act like this virus is not here and take stupid risks like all piling into Milwaukee’s city busses and ride around to see who gets Corona first.

But without at least a little tolerance for risk you just don’t have any life at all. And for me, almost every the time, the more tolerance I have for it the more amazing things happen for me.

People are literally terrified to go outside right now even though getting fresh air and sunshine is the very best thing they could do.

Other comments

“But people will die.”

Response: Life is for the living. I have a Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness. You do you. I’ll do me.

Richard Smith

Interesting article, like politics we all take sides. While I understand many have fallen sick and have died fighting this virus, I also understand that with precautions in place we should be able to move forward with life. We did not shut the country down with HIV, SARS, Ebola or Influenza. We learned, we adapted, we grew and we moved forward.
Let’s get the “new normal” guidelines listed and move forward. (I.e. restaurants seating tables of 8 or less 6 feet apart, large gatherings will need permits, pro sports will have less seating, mass transit will need to check temps/mandate masked riders only, schools will alternate homeschooling with classroom allowing smaller class sizes…) the point is we need to move our country forward, we cannot continue to spend money recklessly without a thriving economy to support it! There has to be a happy medium….

AnKel Ro