The virtual class of 2020

"Now for the Class of 2020. We, the generations that preceded you, feel bad for you. However, you will be the first to graduate and venture out into this new landscape. That makes you trailblazers of sorts."

Heads up boys and girls! You are about to graduate (sort of). Sorry about the prom which never happened, and the senior skip day which never ended - but it is time to go. Go out into this topsy turvy world, and try to either get into a closed down college, of find a job in a land where 1 out of 5 folks have just been laid off. But don't worry about your graduation ceremony - we will give you a yard sign which honors you, and then maybe you can Zoom with 150 of your closest friends.

Do I think the class of 2020 got a raw deal? Do I think a bear poops in the woods? Of course they got a raw deal. Just like the 20% of the work force who got laid off, fired or "furloughed" got a raw deal. Actually, the country got a raw deal - thanks to the Wuhan or CCP virus. But we are done crying over spilled milk. We are trying to move on - adapt. And kids, you kids from the Class of 2020 - you need to do the same. Some are saying this is the new normal, others are saying it is not. Whatever it is, we need to go on. One step at a time.

Dr. Tom Frieden, the former head of the CDC, was on the news yesterday. His take on this virus was about as crystal clear as many of us have. When asked if things will get better this summer, he said, "It might." When asked if the dreaded second wave was coming next fall and winter, he said, "It might". He did say this however. As little as we know about this virus, we do know it is ten times deadlier than the flu, and ten times easier to catch. When asked about Project Warp Speed, and if it would be our panacea, his opinion was, "This is a good thing to do". Will it work? His answer was, "We hope so. But we have to choice but to try it."

Every time I hear stuff like what Frieden said, I want to go over to Wuhan, and kick some of those Chicom virologists in their junk. And I mean kick them hard! Remember, all this pain, all this suffering, all this death, all this inconvenience, all these missed opportunities - are the fault of the Chicoms. Not a bat, not nature, not happenstance - it was the negligence of the Chicoms. 

Now for the Class of 2020. We, the generations that preceded you, feel bad for you. However, you will be the first to graduate and venture out into this new landscape. That makes you trailblazers of sorts. This is the world the Chicoms have broken, and it will be up to your generation to help fix it. I know, I know - this is not fair. You got screwed. Just remember who it was who did the screwing. Never forget that. 

As for the rest of us, the ones older than the Class of 2020 - we will work with you, side by side. We will work to fix the broken, and to live our lives as best we can, while still be stalked by this virus which could either be real bad, or just sort of bad. We do know it is bad enough to put 315,000 people in their graves (worldwide) just this year. And about 1/3 of those deaths are Americans. This is why we all have to fix what is broken.