Sunday, March 15, 2020

Social Distancing Collapses at America's Airports

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

As I was hiking the internet this morning to see what was new in the world, I came across some unusually disturbing photos on Twitter:  pictures of crowds taken overnight inside of two of America's major airports:  Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and Chicago's O'Hare.  Actually the word "crowds" fails to capture the true horror of the humanity that was clogged and squashed into those two facilities.  There were endless lines so deep and wide that it would have been nearly impossibly for someone occupying a space in one to have more than just a general idea of where they were headed.  And the sad reality was that those burgeoning masses of people seemed to be headed nowhere at all!

Those two major United States airports, and undoubtedly several others as well, were dealing with the double-whammy of crowds rushing home from Europe in order to beat Trump's deadline for their return - and emergency medical checks at the airports to insure that the returning travelers are well enough to leave the airports and return home.  (Checks which will probably reveal only those who are obviously symptomatic.)

And the tired and angry passengers were literally shoulder-to-shoulder, elbow-to-elbow, belly-to-butt, angry body pressed up against angry body - a veritable playground for communicable diseases of every sort!

The much ballyhooed new buzz-term of "social distancing" (the notion that people should avoid crowds at all costs and keep six-to-ten feet between themselves and others) had clearly succumbed to the modern realities of air travel and government bureaucracy.

At some point, hours and hours from now, all of those people will eventually make it out of the airport madness and start to find their way home - into every urban neighborhood and every backwoods, remote corner of America.   They are coming home, slowly but steadily, and they are bringing the world back with them!

And somewhere in New Jersey Donald Trump is playing golf with a clear and relaxed conscience.    He had nothing to do with any of this.

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