We’ll See

Our local YMCA pool opens for lap swim and private swim lessons this coming Monday (as IL moves into phase 4 of reopening). For the record, Kevin and I aren’t sure whether it’ll feel safe enough for us to take the kids there, but I’m still excited; swimming is one of the things I’ve most missed in all this. I’ll probably go and at least try lap swimming once myself (not using changing rooms, just wearing something I can pull off and pull back on poolside over my swimsuit), suss out how busy it seems, etc., and then maybe will go back for more, maybe even sign the kids up for swim lessons. We’ll see. Wish it was an outdoors pool, but oh well.

I have to say, I don’t know how I’d handle reopening myself, if the decisions were up to me as governor. You have to assume that every time you open the state up a step, that will lead to some increased spread, and therefore to some people dying.

But the fact of the matter is that without the political will to tax the wealthy and the corporations heavily enough to support the middle class, working class, and the unemployed through this, the burden will fall on them, and some of them will die from the state being closed — to suicide, to domestic violence, to increased street violence as people become desperate to feed their families, etc.

Just letting the economy crash costs lives, so it becomes a complicated dance, and every single decision has deaths as a consequence. So all you can do, really, is try your best to gather the data that will let you best mitigate harm. Very hard.

The library board met last night, and the library is expecting to move to the next phase of its reopening plan July 22, letting people into the main library building again in a very limited fashion (library service level 2). (Assuming we don’t see a spike, in which case, that date may get pushed further out.)

We’ve already re-opened enough for contact-free holds pick-up and contact-free returns (library service level 1), so if you’ve been jonesing for library books or desperate to return ones from months ago, please feel free. Details on the OPPL library website. Research now seems pretty conclusive the circulating materials should be safe after 3 days, so we’re ‘quarantining’ materials appropriately.

Fingers crossed opening the library further is the right decision, or at least the best decision we can make, under the circumstances. I’ve signed off on it as a library board trustee. We’ll see.

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