Proud to be an Ohioan

 Yikes. I started this post over a month ago. I'd decided I should have more of an "as I lived it" recounting of these times, and told myself that I was going to write down actual thoughts. Clearly that was too high a bar to set myself right now, because I never actually went back and finished the post...

Echoing something I have seen a number of people write recently: I did not vote for Mike DeWine, and traditionally have not agreed with him on many issues, but I've been impressed with his handling of the current crisis. Like many, I was surprised when spectators were banned at the Arnold Sports Festival, several years ago, at the beginning of March 2020.

From the BBC...Coronavirus: the US Governor who saw it coming early 

I've been pretty impressed with the governor's ability to not say something that would earn him a rage tweet and stupid nickname from the president--while still advocating for his state.

This article talks about that: With Trump as president, DeWine’s crisis approach requires the art of politics

This is fun

Watch Neil Diamond Transform ‘Sweet Caroline’ Into Coronavirus PSA
“Hands / Washing hands / Reaching out / Don’t touch me / I won’t touch you”

More nature webcams

A friend shared this on Facebook. First I watched the gorillas. Now I'm watching the bison. Next, jellyfish maybe? It could be like a screensaver. Remember screensavers? When did we stop seeing those?

Watching the penguins

From the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. This is kind of cool.

Seasonal humor break

St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland

 

More than 5000 Coronavirus cases in U.S.

Via the updated New York Times map.

Dammit. It's pretty horrifying to realize that this is just the beginning.

No Ohio voting today

It's been a suspenseful 24 hours waiting to find out if Ohio primary voting will take place today. It will not. I believe that was the right decision. How do you tell people to avoid groups of 10 or more, but then say that voting should go on as planned?

Governor Mike DeWine, along with Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton hold a daily briefing at 2:00 p.m. EST. I've been tuning in to that for about a week. It's reassuring to hear the reasoning behind these decisions (which are coming so quickly), given in a calm voice and backed by science.

I shouldn't have to say this

...but, "Don't be racist!"  Yes, the current U.S. president refers to COVID-19 as "Chinese", but that doesn't mean anyone else has to. I've seen this argument, "But, that's how we name viruses", and then there's a reference to the "Spanish flu" of 1918.

That was 1918. A lot of racist expressions were acceptable at the time. More than a century later, we can do better, can't we?