The Grey Area and the Practice for the Future

A few months after 9/11, I wrote in my journal that I was afraid that Iraq had nuclear weapons. I wrote it in response to sensational (and false) news report that inspired a forever war. I was a sophomore in college. My friends and I had seen the terror attack on New York City from our dorm windows. We watched the scene unfold on television and in real life simultaneously. I still distinctly remember the abject uneasiness that came from the attacks especially from the information cycles that followed. The intense discomfort of what happens next — will there be war? more attacks? why was there so much confusion at the government level? The unknowing of any concrete details and lack of leadership and the immense amounts of misinformation and double speak were overwhelming.

Now, in the midst of the Covid-19 coronavirus global pandemic, my students are the age I was during 9/11 in a similar and unfortunate amount of uncertainty. By contrast, they’ve been collectively sent home from school. We’ve been given advice that’s designed to slow the virus or “flatten the curve” as our healthcare systems cannot handle being overwhelmed.

Now there’s two ways of looking at the current moment of actions being taken: maybe we’re over-reacting in our prevention (though if this works, it will be a hidden success), or the fact that things like the NBA, NHL in Disney are shutting down means that we’re under reacting. But it doesn’t matter because it’s the unknown. It’s a very grey area.