Uncertain Chemicals

All times are uncertain. When were the certain times in our Nation’s history? Not in the Revolutionary War and the 120+ other Wars, Occupations, Interventions, Enforcements, Invasions, Encounters, Bombings, Actions, Rebellions, Crises, Insurgencies, Conflicts, and Uprisings? The Cuban Missile Crisis does not even make that list. How about the uncertainty erupting over slavery, women’s suffrage, Prohibition, stock market crashes, the Great Depression, civil rights, abortion, gun control, and the 911 aftermath? The day before Pearl Harbor was uncertain. Mother Nature is the most uncertain of forces and never takes a vacation. When were the days when no one died or got really sick? The Coronavirus is not unprecedented. The Spanish Flu infected one third of the World population. It killed between 500,000-850,000 in the United States (depending on how counted) when our population was less than a third of today’s 330 million. Seattle closed “schools, theatres, motion picture houses, churches, and dance halls” on October 5, 1918. The fine for not wearing a mask on a streetcar was $5 ($81 in today’s dollars) and the top floor of the old County Courthouse was designated for influenza patients. Sounds familiar. Some wars, like World War I and World War II are bigger than others. The Coronavirus is going to be bigger than lesser disasters but is a link in a long uncertainty chain. Like many humans, I tend to discount struggles in the past and think I am the first victim of every new uncertainty. Even the stock market craves certainty, good or bad, over uncertainty. But uncertainty is part of a famous trio with death and taxes. Well, I was heading to a punchline about dangerous chemicals and got lost in an exploding polemic. The endings of my postings are even uncertain until the final sentence is writ.