On Monday, the Mississippi State Department of Health confirmed a case of COVID-19 in Monroe County, a sure sign that the dreaded virus is very near to us all. As of Monday there are 12 confirmed cases in Mississippi. Nationally, the number of cases is a 3,487, including 68 deaths.
Yet in one sense, all of us have been infected by the virus.
We have contracted the fear that accompanies it and that fear, like the virus itself, is spreading.
It may range from mild anxiety to moderate worry to serious concern to untethered panic, but we all have some form of it.
Fear often gets a bad rap, yet we’ve all heard the expression, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” It’s often fear that keeps us safe. It keeps us from walking down that dark alley when something tells us not to. It’s why we don’t take unnecessary chances. Fear is a hard-wired emotion, instinctive and natural.
But there is also a kind of fear that is harmful.
It is the kind of fear FDR noted in his famous 1932 Inaugural Address — “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
It is a sad irony, then, that 10 years after that speech it was fear that led to FDR’s worst decision — the internment some 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent at the beginning of World War II.
How well did we learn that history lesson? We’ll soon discover.
Today, we are confronted with our own fear and the unanswered question will be about the nature of that fear.
Will it be the kind of fear that protects us? Will it be the kind of fear that tells us to stay informed, take the recommended precautions and avoid unnecessary risks?
Or will it be the nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror FDR spoke of? Will it be the kind of fear that makes us greedy and reckless? Will it be the kind of fear that leads to scapegoating and cruelty?
We’ve already seen some of the latter. We’ve seen mindless hoarding and examples of people defying pleas to avoid large gatherings in a misguided attempt to affirm “their rights.”
We have also heard reports of Asian Americans being blamed and suspected, their businesses shunned because of the mindless notion that they and their businesses are breeding grounds for COVID-19 for no other reason than the virus originated in China. On Monday, President Trump, echoing recent comments from other Republican legislators, referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus,” a tactic seen by many as an attempt to shift attention to the origin of the virus and away from the administration’s handling of the crisis.
Sadly, these reactions shouldn’t be surprising. Again, our history shows that in almost every crisis, people are tempted to look for someone to blame.
During World War I and World War II, the object of that fear was focused on German immigrants, some of whom traced their arrival in America to before the American Revolution, and, as noted, with Japanese Americans in World War II.
More recently, the terrorist attacks on 9/11 unleashed a wave of anti-Muslim acts and sentiments, something that stubbornly persists today among many of our citizens and a sizable portion of our political leaders eager to exploit those prejudices.
Let’s hope this new wave of scapegoating of Asian Americans quickly subsides. First of all, it’s not accurate. More importantly, it’s not helpful. It’s fear. Unreasoning and unjustified fear.
Which kind of fear will rule the day?
Let’s hope when this current crisis passes we can all say that the fear it instilled in us was the kind of fear that kept us safe and sane and not the kind of fear we will be ashamed to have embraced and encouraged.
It has been said that hard times don’t build character, they reveal it.
The question before us: What kind of people are we?
The judgment of history awaits that answer.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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