[Correction (my first ever) – In my last post, I suggested that Sweden’s decision to remain “open” did not result in significant adverse reaction.  That is incorrect.  Sweden has a higher death rate percentage-wise than other countries that have “closed.”  Covid stats are available at https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ ]   Now . . . .  

I enjoy reading Peggy Noonan’s columns on Saturday in The Wall Street Journal.  She is always incisive and smart in her offerings.  Her column today (4/25-26/20) inspires me to provide some of her salient observations.

“What will hurt us is secretly rooting for disaster for those who don’t share our priors.  Everyone is trying to live.  It doesn’t help to be a Northerner who looks down on Southerners, or a securely employed professional . . . who has no clue what it means when a small-town business crashes.  People who can work remotely probably don’t feel the same urgency to reopen as those who must be physically present, in retail and at diner counters.  

Conspiracy nuts who think the virus was a hoax to bring down Donald Trump will always be with us.  So will grim leftists who take pleasure in every death of a guy who called the threat overblown. . . . 

We forget we are 50 different states with different histories, ways and attitudes, even different cultures.  New Jersey isn’t Wyoming; Colorado isn’t Arkansas.  This used to be called ‘regional differences.’  We can’t tamp them all down, and we don’t want to.   So people will do things at different speeds in different ways.  The thing is to watch, judge fairly and move to countermand what proves dangerous.”  

Wise counsel.  There are good people on both sides of the Covid-19 issue.  And religion.  And politics. . . . .