There are times where there are “no do-overs,” instances when one must get it right the first time, or perhaps be consigned to a lifetime of regret.  Caretaking for an elder presents one such example. Leading a national response to an incurable new disease is another. While President Trump could make a no do over situation a national debate to the end, he has now rightfully and artfully, turned the script over to the fifty governors to decide the fate of those whose lives are in their hands.  Now, they are the caretakers. Some reluctantly, some dictatorially, some draconically, and some eagerly embracing their path to reopening

It is easy for the conspiracy theorists to rule the day. Still, truth is not only illusive and transitory, but mind numbingly difficult to discern.  “The numbers are inflated, the numbers are undercounted, Dr. Fauci is an expert, Dr. Fauci dances with the devils at the Wuhan Lab, mitigation has flattened the curve and saved the hospitals from crashing, mitigation harmed us by halting herd immunity, a second wave is  coming, a second wave isn’t coming, hydroxyquinoline is a cure, hydroxyquinoline kills” – and so, each uncertain day unfolds. 

All of them, and all of us, are flying into the unknown. While many Americans have, albeit with varying degrees of reluctance, supported the shutdowns, there is a vocal minority that pushes for the immediate reopening of our economy.  And, while most “experts” have our best interests at heart, surely there are those in their midst with ulterior motives:  pecuniary, enhanced status, protecting one’s reputation, fame, seeking higher office, balancing accumulated state debt, yearning for the demise of capitalism and the rise of socialism, and/or obsessed with power.

The extremes are glaring.  New York has given us three doozies.  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex, who cowed when she defeated Amazon, espoused that freedom to work is oxymoronic. Tell that to the millions suddenly unemployed.  Governor Cuomo and Mayor DeBlasio, displaying pitiful imitations of post-9/11 Mayor Giuliani, are a national embarrassment.  DeBlasio should be thrown out of office for mindless stupidity, exhorting New Yorkers to ride the filthy subway system and crowd as usual, while the global pandemic gathered steam and deaths mounted.  Cuomo shouted and strutted like a wartime general as he mugged for the TV cameras and begged for more hospital beds and supplies.  President Trump complied, exhorting a Navy ship to retrofit and execute the arrival of the USNS Comfort in New York’s harbor ahead of schedule; the US Army Corps of Engineers retrofitted the Jacob Javits Convention Center as a hospital; and, Minister Graham’s Puritan’s Purse hastily erected, in partnership with Mount Sinai Hospital, a field hospital in Central Park.  All were outfitted with running tubes of oxygen and overflow resources for either elective surgeries or Covid-19 patients.  Medical service people, many retired, flooded the city for assistance and President Trump supplied excess ventilators. 

How did the heartless Cuomo utilize this outpouring? He allowed New York legislation to pass in March that decreed any nursing home patient hospitalized with Covid-19 could be returned to their nursing home for treatment.  The nursing homes were totally unprepared, without protective supplies or adequate services.  Consequently, the patients suffered and died alone – cases proliferated, and many staff and others needlessly died.  Cuomo’s persistent and heartless response has been that it is not his job to supply nursing homes with ventilators.  Meanwhile, unused, the USNS Comfort departed and the other two resources remain mostly empty.

Contrast these heartless dummies to the outstanding behavior displayed by President Trump.  Seemingly without sleep and with an excess of energy, he has marshalled leaders from all walks of American society, allies and critics alike to vocally and aggressively assist in decision-making.  Contrary to the mainstream media’s slanderous caricatures, he has allowed these “experts’ to contradict him on national TV.  And putting life first, President Trump knowingly allowed his spectacular economy to tank, in his quest to save lives.

In return, regardless the postmortems sure to follow, Trump deserves the reward of a life free of Covid-19 “what ifs.”  His valor does not require a do over.