pa href=https://www.cato.org/people/doug-bandow hreflang=undDoug Bandow/a/p
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pI spent the weekend in Miami. At anbsp;small conference. Sharing refreshment with activists and journalists. Renewing old relationships. Making new friends. Debating political ideas./p
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pIt was wonderful./p
pCOVID-19 obviously has been terrible for those who died as well as survivors. The disease also has been awful for the rest of us. It has taken anbsp;year of life that will never be restored. As we approach the first anniversary of what ended up being an effective shutdown of much of personal, cultural, and economic life, Inbsp;figure Inbsp;will effectively die anbsp;year earlier./p
pI live alone. Inbsp;also have worked at home for more than 36nbsp;years — an astonishing number, frankly. But normally Inbsp;don’t feel alone. In pre‐pandemic days, Inbsp;traveled anbsp;lot. Inbsp;spoke to groups and schools. Inbsp;participated in conferences. Inbsp;ventured overseas. Inbsp;spent much of my life engaging others aboutnbsp;a href=https://spectator.org/belgium-elections-government/ target=_blankpolitics/a,nbsp;a href=https://spectator.org/communists-angela-davis/ target=_blankphilosophy/a,nbsp;a href=https://spectator.org/if-the-president-vetoes-the-defense-bill-it-shouldnt-be-to-preserve-confederate-base-names/ target=_blankhistory/a,nbsp;a href=https://spectator.org/sen-loeffler-mao-portrait/ target=_blankart,/anbsp;a href=https://spectator.org/turtle-ships-collection/ target=_blankantiques/a,nbsp;a href=https://spectator.org/the-death-of-a-china-love-affair/ target=_blanktravel/a,nbsp;a href=https://spectator.org/supreme-court-nominations-should-not-be-a-partisan-affair/ target=_blanklaw/a,nbsp;a href=https://spectator.org/jehovahs-witnesses-russia/ target=_blankreligion/a, and more./p
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pThe COVID-19 pandemic has been awful. It’s been depressing. It’s been anbsp;waste. It’s been anbsp;form of death. In effect, anbsp;year has been lopped off my life. /p
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pThis past year has been vastly different./p
pAlmost every day has been like every other day. Dreary, unstimulating, uninteresting, sterile, useless, wasted. Inbsp;had trouble keeping track of days of the week. Weekends didn’t matter. The main difference was that Sunday Inbsp;went from four to two newspapers to read, since thenbsp;emFinancial Times/emnbsp;andnbsp;emWall Street Journal/emnbsp;don’t publish that day./p
pIt is hard to quantify the personal stimulation lost. Giving talks to domestic audiences is enjoyable. Doing so also has given me anbsp;chance to see much of “flyover country.” For instance, Inbsp;wander to sometimes isolated colleges and law schools — University of North Dakota School of Law in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for instance./p
pForeign trips almost always offer an opportunity to explore. Last year before coronavirus took control Inbsp;went to Sydney (Australia) and Marrakesh (Morocco). Absent COVID-19 Inbsp;also had expected to be in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenyang (China), Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), Rome (Italy), Seoul (South Korea), Delphi (Greece), and Kiev (Ukraine). And those merely were the invitations that had been extended. Inbsp;also was hoping to go to Pyongyang (North Korea), Juba (South Sudan), and other countries. So many opportunities to discover and enjoy an endlessly fascinating world./p
pI did anbsp;lot of writing in 2020. More than usual, in fact. Inbsp;enjoy writing, even though last year reinforced what Inbsp;long ago realized intellectually: nothing Inbsp;write matters in any practical sense. Neither major political party believes in fiscal responsibility. Members of neither party model moral responsibility. Washington’s War Party is bipartisan, wasting Americans’ lives and resources while causing prodigious deaths and destruction in other nations. My intellectual targets seem impervious to argument and good sense./p
pStill, Inbsp;persist since Inbsp;believe in my message and long ago internalized what my then‐boss Ronald Reagan proclaimed. If not us, who? If not now, when? But in 2020 Inbsp;lacked something else that was critical: emotional engagement with other real, living human beings in person./p
pZoom doesn’t satisfy. It was useful, allowing staff meetings and webinars. But Inbsp;spend much of my professional life online. The last thing Inbsp;want is more time looking at anbsp;screen. I’ve done anbsp;couple university and law school talks online, which was better than nothing. But Inbsp;want to watch an audience to see how and to what people respond and react. Inbsp;like making eye contact and otherwise reaching out to listeners. I’ve also missed having lunch or dinner with the sponsors — it is fun to learn what “kids” are up to, what matters to them, what trends are affecting them. Inbsp;want, enjoy, and thrive on theemnbsp;human contact/em./p
pFor weeks on end in 2020 the only people Inbsp;saw were some neighbors — anbsp;couple of whom are good friends and were unafraid to share anbsp;meal or drink — and folks at Giant Food and Staples. For 10 months the farthest Inbsp;got from home was 25nbsp;miles. Inbsp;didn’t spend even one night away from home. Hopping in the car to purchase anbsp;gallon of milk became my equivalent of an adventure. Standbys in my life, such as church and home group, went online./p
pIt’s been awful. It’s been depressing. It’s been anbsp;waste. It’s been anbsp;form of death. In effect, anbsp;year has been lopped off my life./p
pEven after attending anbsp;couple church services (featuring worthy attempts at social distancing) Inbsp;decided to stay home and watch online. Anbsp;worrying number of people were still gathering in one place, and the very measures intended to reduce the potential dangers also minimized the advantages of human interaction. Chairs are spaced out, services are truncated, people are asked not to sit with those outside of their families, those attending are instructed not to visit with others in the sanctuary, and more. It is one thing to increase my risk of infection to some indeterminate degree to enjoy real contact with long‐time friends. It is quite another to do so for sterilized shadow of past experience when Inbsp;can safely watch online./p
pThe reopening of restaurants offered anbsp;small lifeline. It allowed me to get together with some adventuresome friends and colleagues. Inbsp;was able to interact with anbsp;real person. Inbsp;could share anbsp;drink and meal. Inbsp;could keep up with another life. Not often, since people have varying willingness to take risks, and even that changes over time — the latest upsurge has driven some of my dinner buddies back into home isolation./p
pWhat now offers the first real hope in 10 months is the prospect of being vaccinated./p
pI have family and friends who are vaccine skeptics, but they offer no alternative to constant fear, periodic infection spikes, and widespread shutdowns. More importantly, Inbsp;am anbsp;vaccine believer. Inbsp;tell folks that Inbsp;have had most every vaccine known to man, and perhaps anbsp;few others, including, because of my extensive foreign travels, rabies, Japanese Encephalitis, hepatitis Anbsp;and B, and yellow fever. Inbsp;take medication to forestall malaria and prevent cholera for the duration of trips. Inbsp;bring antibiotics with me in case of generic infection or an attack of Montezuma’s Revenge. Inbsp;cannot imagine not protecting myself whenever possible./p
pThe case of COVID-19 is even more important. It is the prospect of returning to anbsp;normal life, or close, anyway. How long that will take is anyone’s guess. As anbsp;summer person, Inbsp;hate the thought of losing my favorite season again. But it is possible to imagine universities reconvening in the fall and organizations beginning to reschedule events with some feeling of security. Then at least Inbsp;would not lose anbsp;second full year./p
pMy jaunt in Miami was terrific. There was anbsp;downside, however — it whetted my appetite for more normal human interaction. Inbsp;don’t have any other trips planned, though. Inbsp;don’t expect to be going anywhere else for months./p
pBut as more people get vaccinated and the winter surge fades, it gives me hope that Inbsp;won’t be anbsp;Pollyanna if Inbsp;look forward to the real, complete, and final end of 2020, annus horribilis. Then Inbsp;will be able to look back on my time in Miami as anbsp;revival of something very special — human contact./p
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Doug Bandow is anbsp;Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. Anbsp;former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author ofnbsp;a href=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597819883/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8amp;tag=amspectator-20amp;camp=1789amp;creative=9325amp;linkCode=as2amp;creativeASIN=1597819883amp;linkId=e994fca9d39747e301a4784b47ce85ab target=_blankForeign Follies: America’s New Global Empire/a.
