Protection

As the title speaks of, this is indeed a post about protection. Soldier! Raise that shield higher, you are not protecting yourself but those next to you. In turn they are protecting you.

Okay, maybe that might be a little overbearing, but I think you might know where I’m coming from? This has a been a weird couple of years for me. Last year was tumultuous on an emotional level and this year, well for everyone, a financial level. We are all learning that the safety nets that we believed in and knew in our “hearts” would never fail. Well, they’re failing. Every net is delicate, right now, there are people that have every wish to cut the nets, even going against specialist that say it’s stupid to do so. Everyone will be affected by this, how we come out on the other end, could be, or damn well will be, a clarion call. I can’t see the future so, at this time, i’ll talk about other things.

In pertaining to the actual title of this blog, and the first sentence, we are trying to flatten the curve to protect. In doing so, as John Scalzi put it, this is the Great Pause. Which, honestly, can be a good thing. This is stressful, please do not misunderstand. I feel for every person that is out on the front lines combating this and doing what they can to support the oaths that they have taken for society. I am not that soldier on the front line, I am someone at home. I’m trying to create habits at home that I can take with me when we are out of this to be more productive. I am trying to better myself, by staying home and doing what I can to learn. By being a person that is staying at home, I am not that front line soldier, but I very well might be the person a few ranks back. Those on the front lines, they should be the medical and the politicians making the decisions to help and soothe worry. Those at the forefront should specifically be those that have taken oaths to protect and serve society.

What we have though is, well, not that.

Maybe this is even a bad example. I am not trying to lionize or laud the military or militarization, but instead to point out parallels that might make sense. I was also going to start this blog post with another reference that was just funny. That reference though, may be in poor taste, or might need to be in a different blog.

Instead, let me tell a little story.

I was young and innocent once … cough cough … ahem. Anyways. I grew up in Michigan, specifically, this is a story from when I was quite young, before I was 10. My grandma, a kind and caring woman, lived in Flint. It may not have been the nicest neighborhood, and there were bars on neighbor’s windows, but I was a child and I played in the yard. Was it rough, yes, but I never saw it within the context of bad. That being said … this was Flint. It’s possible that this was one of the rougher neighborhoods, cleaned up by the time I traipsed through with my grandmother.

This story specifically was a time when my grandma watched a cousin and myself. Like any grandma, she loved to spoil us, as grandmas are wanton to do. Every so often she was walk us down a few blocks to a penny candy store. That’s not hyperbolic kids, the candy was cheap. This place had the cheaper items out, the expensive stuff, and the cash register, behind a counter to ceiling inch thick Plexiglas wall. It’s possible this was a corner store, but they had cheap candy and the entire room was covered. You walked in and it was just an aisle that went six feet up to the counter and a spot where you paid. Maybe the Plexiglas was a reminder from that bygone era, maybe it was still a “just in case.” I didn’t care, I was a kid enjoying sugar.

Why bring up a story from my childhood? I forgot about this place, I was there maybe twice. It made enough of an impression though and I was reminded about it today. Ironically, or sad, the reminder came from Costco. Costco, is doing right by their employees. They are a company that is necessary and every person that works there maintains it. If anything, this entire period has shown how important it is to care for those that society has deemed menial. They are the ones that make sure this economy doesn’t crash. They are the ones that are 3 ranks back, interlocking shields to make sure that you can buy meat, pharmaceuticals, and gas for your car.

I apologize for my digression. Why does Costco bring back this memory? They have put up a Plexiglas barricade between their employee and the customer. That barricade also has a cutout for a card reader and a place to hand the customer a receipt. The interaction is negligible, where it needs to be to protect the workers. From midway on the register, it completely shields the employee. Sadly it reminded me of that Plexiglas barricade from my childhood, one meant to protect a worker, an owner, a father, a mother, family.

I was at another store 2 weeks ago, they had the acrylic shields up as well, but it never caused a correlation. To me, these ones, they don’t do the job to protect. This was just a sheet, wide and stupidly tall. It covers a very specific part of the register and the cashier, but only when standing in a specific spot. When the cashier goes to bag or hands a customer the receipt, there is no protection, there is no shield.

As it stands, I try to stay home. I try to make sure that the little bit of acrylic that is supposed to protect the cashier is superfluous. I’m not the only one though that needs to stay home we all do. Maybe, hopefully, we lower the curve and within a few months, those shields can come down