THE PLAGUE
What usually happens in a natural disaster
is people come together,
help each other.
Yet,
this doesn’t, necessarily, happen during a plague.
It definitely didn’t happen during the Spanish Flu Pandemic.
Our civilization has tried to forget what happened.
Because what happened,
during that plague,
was total
social disintegration,
the end of civilization.
In the plague panic,
it was everyone for themselves.
Orphaned children starved to death.
The sick died
unattended,
in squalor.
Dead bodies
rotted in the street.
Then
it was normal behavior
for people to
visit with,
bring food,
attend
to their neighbors
who were sick.
That was gone during the plague panic.
In Goldsboro, North Carolina, Dan Tonkel recalled,
“We were actually almost afraid to breathe…
“You were afraid even to go out…
“The fear was so great people were actually afraid to leave their homes.
“…afraid to talk to one another.”
In Washington, D.C., William Sardo said,
“It kept people apart…
“You had no school life,
“you had no church life,
“you had nothing
“…It completely destroyed all family and community life.”
.
It is still easy to say this,
and
it may become increasingly difficult
to actually live it.
But I maintain
better to die from the plague
– then to live
with the guilt
of
what you did,
what you didn’t do.
