Letter to the Editor: Protest

There is plenty in our current situation to protest. We might begin with the virus itself, but it has no human conscience. We could go on to protest economic systems around the world that put so many millions of working people at risk by cultivating inequality. 

We could come closer to home to protest an administration and a political party that have balked at providing sufficient tests, protective materials and medical equipment to manage the outbreaks; and that have not yet given sufficient support to small businesses, preferring instead to “bail out” the big corporations. These would be legitimate protests.

What we must not do is undermine our fragile health-care system and the thousands of workers in that arena who are risking their lives to save ours. And we must not protest the governors who are making the best decisions they can to stop the virus in its tracks. We already have the highest number of deaths in the world from COVID-19 – higher per day than our deaths from heart disease or cancer! 

Without widespread testing, we do not know who is spreading the virus because 25 percent of those who carry it do not show symptoms. Scientists everywhere are warning that our best bet is to stay at home until cases have tapered off for 14 days.

This is frustrating news because we can’t know exactly when that will be, but in Wisconsin, we can be sure that our governor will make a thoughtful and well-reasoned decision. We can be sure that our NGOs are working tirelessly to feed people who need food and take care of those who need medical attention. Some of us are working to keep bill collectors away from our doors. Some of us are donating our stimulus checks in full to the common cause.

Please do everything you can to make a better world for yourselves and your children, but do so online until the crisis has passed!

Estella Lauter

Fish Creek, Wisconsin