Feeling Uncomfortable With a Common Comparison

Monday 6 April 2020     06.20 am (started) 5.54pm (concluded)

 

I am becoming a little uncomfortable with some of the rhetoric being used by politicians, opinion makers and reporters around the efforts to contain the spread of Coronavirus.

 

It is regularly being referred to as “fighting a war” or “being at war”.

 

The US President seems to like the idea that he is a War time President presiding over a War Cabinet.

 

I know several veterans of the Vietnam War and a little of their ordeal during and subsequent to their period of service.

 

I know of many more and their stories. I know Sons and Daughters of Vietnam veterans and challenges they faced and witnessed their Parents face.

 

I knew servicemen from the Second World War and the Great War and while I did not hear of their ordeals first hand, I have read much about horrors, terrors, tragedy and death including in New Guinea, The Pacific and Western Front Campaigns. I also have met several Prisoners of War held captive in Singapore.

 

I cannot help but feel we are insulting the military veterans of our conflicts and their families by drawing an analogy of Coronavirus with their experiences.

 

Moving on to books and Podcasts.

 

Last week’s Podcast was ok and there are further episodes to come to complete the series.

 

For this week, I am adding a Podcast that was sent through and highly recommended. It is Escaping NXIVM and is about a woman’s battle to bring down a cult.

 

I am also going to recommend one I listened to some time ago titled The Alice Fraser Trilogy. It is very funny and also interesting. Alice is also Australian.

 

As for books, I have not quite finished The Birth of Melbourne.

 

This week’s suggestion is motivated by the despair being experienced in a City that fascinates me and of which I can’t wait to return. It is called Here is New York, authored by E.B White. It was first published in 1949 and chronicles a snap shot in time of an evolving City. It is also only 56 pages and will allow me to catch up.

 

Stay safe, stay happy, keep being supportive.

 

Colin Morley