Totally Unprepared

"In any event, here we are right now, very few working, and many of us stuck at home. Somehow, we will climb out of this hole, but then the question remains - will we learn anything from this? Based on our history, probably not."

It sure has not taken long this year, to be reminded of one cold, hard fact. We have seen it on September 11, 2001 when terrorists sucker punched us, and almost 3,000 Americans died. We saw it again during 2005, when Hurricane Katrina just about destroyed New Orleans. During that storm, over 1,200 Americans died, most of them needlessly. Then we saw it again during Super Storm Sandy in 2012. That storm cost billions and killed over 100 Americans. What do all of these disasters have in common? We were unprepared. FEMA was here just to help clean up the mess - not to help prevent the mess from happening.

As unprepared as we were for all of the fore mentioned events, NOTHING compares to how unprepared we were for this COVID - 19 virus. NOTHING. And it took years, to become as unprepared as we were. Years of off-shoring food and medicine. Much of which went to a commie country which hates us. Years of knowing a run away virus was possible, yet we had not one plan in the hopper. Years of letting our emergency supplies, such as PPE and vents, get down to practically nothing. Years of going without proper replenishment to our emergency gear.

Right now, our federal, state and local governments are playing as well together as a middle school orchestra during the first week of practice. The most important question being asked by our leaders right now is "Who's on first?" It is a mess of the highest order. Keystone Cops. ALL OF THE ITEMS BEING CONTESTED RIGHT NOW, should have been decided upon LONG before this virus hit. But Uncle Sam did nothing. Kind of like all the warnings we have had about our electric grid ever since the 1980's (or earlier). Our government has told us that an EMP event might kill up to 90% of our population. Still, we have nothing planned to fix our grid. SMH over and over again.

Now we are in deep kimchi. People are still dying, and our economy is close to being on life support. The doomsday crowd is already telling we will first run out of meat, and by this fall, fresh fruits and veggies will be in short supply. Why? For what reason? Planning. We have never "war gamed" this type of event. Will we run out of food? Who knows? The government does not seem to know.

How about meds? What happens if our relationship with China really takes a turn for the worse and they without our meds? Then we will have HUGE problems in a very short period of time. Why? Never planned for it. Ever.

I will give Governor Cuomo credit for on piece of wisdom he gave during a presser. "We are playing from behind. We are playing defense. So long as we continue to play defense, we are not winning." Bingo! We are playing defense, because WE HAD NO PLAN.

In any event, here we are right now, very few working, and many of us stuck at home. Somehow, we will climb out of this hole, but then the question remains - will we learn anything from this? Based on our history, probably not. But we should. The next time, things could be a whole lot worse.