Everywhere I go I find a pal
Peter Weinschenk, Editor, The Record-Review
The positive news is that I am COVID-19 negative.
I drove to CVS pharmacy in Wausau on Thursday to get my coronavirus virus test and, four days later, received an e-mail stating that my nasal sample was negative for the virus.
I scheduled the test after sharing the air with an individual whose mother-in-law tested positive for the illness.
The task of getting a test is, I suppose, something of a rite of passage during these difficult days. It was easier than I would have thought, however. Everything I had heard about a coronavirus test was that a medical technician stuck a chopstick in your brain. My test was self-administered and not at all uncomfortable. The CVS lady at the car drive-through gave you a test kit that rolled out in the motorized, extendable drawer from the drive-up window. Inside the kit was a short Q-Tip with a single cotton swab and a small vial of clear liquid. I followed the verbal directions I was given. I stuck the Q-Tip in my left nostril, gave it two revolutions, and then I inserted the same Q-Tip in my right nostril, again giving it two revolutions. I then placed the QTip in the vial and the vial in a plastic bag. The plastic bag was inserted (with a sanitary wipe) in a drop drawer. Then I drove away.
Maybe the worst part of the whole testing ritual was self-quarantining for four days, avoiding people and stores and other public gatherings.
It was a bit crazy-making to think that, maybe, I was carrying the dreaded virus inside my body.
My experience, of course, was just getting a test, not having to experience the ravages of COVID-19.
My thought, however, is that if more people had my experience then maybe fewer people might actually contract the illness.
I was trying to do my part.
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Over the past weeks, the Trump campaign has sought to undo the results of the Nov. 3 election with numerous legal challenges and, in the case of Michigan, trying to get county and state county canvassing boards to certify Trump as the election winner, even though he received fewer votes.
People with integrity foiled all of these desperate plans.
These are people, both Republicans and Democrats, who took their oaths seriously, followed the procedures in the book and made sure that our democracy was not just a fine idea, but actually worked.
I am thankful for these people, for our culture that creates these people and for their teachers and parents and pastors who instilled within them a sense of duty and moral right behavior.
The best government on paper has to be carried out by we the flawed people. That’s why I appreciate so much the dedication of our election workers, their fair-mindedness and for upholding, sometimes in the face of extreme pressure, the value of each person’s precious vote.
In his famous book, “Democracy In America,” Alexis de Tocqueville in 1833 rightly said, “The health of a democratic society may be measured by the qualities of functions performed by private citizens.”
Our democracy has measured up pretty well since Election Day.
Contact Peter Weinschenk at pweinschenk@ tpprinting.com
