One of the most enduring traits of humanity is its ability to support each other during times of crisis. Just some of the supports I have seen during shelter-in-place are the following:
- Education units (pre-K through higher education) quickly mobilizing to online without a break, and with sensitivity to students’ needs
- Textbook publishers allowing free access to online textbooks over the duration of the sheltering
- Internet Archive offering free access to their library
- Local Facebook groups helping each other meet needs
- Outreach by the Instagram cat community reminding us to take care of ourselves (I suppose there are others, but I tune into the cat community)
- Countless others
- Harbor Freight’s donations of N95 masks and face shields to hospitals
- People on social media reaching out to the more vulnerable
- And so many I’m not aware of
I’m not counting the millions of businesses, small and large, who are adapting their businesses to face our current reality — online and curbside. The businesses who are adapting their production to fit our current needs. (I’m only not counting them because there’s a profit motive).
The way humanity gets through these calamities — pandemic, natural disaster, war — is through supporting each other. We much each be supported, and we must each provide support.
Words Like Me 