UPDATED: Oh, The (In)humanity

I doubt there is anyone amongst us who is not thoroughly tired of Covid-19, the terrible virus that has forced us to live circumscribed lives for the past two years. Our forced confinement, record hospitalizations and deaths, unprecedented in our lifetime, have taken their toll on us in so many ways, not least of all our mental well-being.

Despite all of that, the majority have endured, doing what we can for both ourselves and our fellow-citizens, getting vaccinated, isolating when required, wearing masks and keeping safe physical distances.

But, to borrow from Charles Dickens, it has proven to be the best of times and the worst of times when it comes to how we treat others. The best is seen in the tireless health-care workers whose exhaustion and frustration over the unvaccinated crowding our hospitals is hard to imagine. The worst comes from the villains of our time, the anti-vaxxers and those of such little character that they have to take out their frustrations on others.

It is what Heather Scofield calls pandemic rage. She writes about Adam, a 26-year-old Toronto cashier:

Adam, who doesn’t want to use their last name for job security reasons, has begun refusing to serve customers who won’t wear masks. They’ll offer up a free mask, first. But if the customers resist, Adam simply won’t serve them.

That’s when the harassment begins. Perhaps it’s just eye-rolling or a mild comment. But on occasion, it’s mocking, accusations, yelling, shoving groceries, complaints to the manager or even filing formal grievances with the head office.

Service-sector workers, predominantly young, bear the brunt of the rage coming from a segment of the approximately 14% of adults not vaccinated.

Almost a third of workers aged 15 to 24 work in retail, and that’s up a full three percentage points from before the pandemic. About 16 per cent work in accommodations and food services, which is down significantly from the 20 per cent share two years ago, says Brendon Bernard, economist at jobs website Indeed Canada.

Whether they realize it or not, these workers do have some power. They can quit and seek other jobs.

Clearly, any employer or policy-maker aiming to respect young workers could see some quick fixes. Arming them with the best of masks, lots of paid sick days, and all the support they need to turn rule-breakers away at a moment’s notice would certainly go a long way. So would consistency and clarity on vaccine requirements in public-facing spaces.

Clearly, if they want to prevent excessive job churn, employers need to act quickly to address the cruelty and egotism of some. The following, which occurred in the U.S., is an illustration of the terrible behaviour people are inflicting on young workers. That the perpetrator is unmasked may be a solid indication of his 'values'. Be warned that the language is rough:

I've identified this man as James Iannazzo of

@MerrillLynch

being racist and assaulting a minor

H/t Danesh (@thatdaneshguy) / Twitter

When the Hindenburg crashed and burned, reporter Herbert Morrison used a timeless phrase, "Oh, the humanity," which was an expression of horror at what he was witnessing. To close out this post, permit me one slight alteration that seems to epitomize our current zeitgeist:

Oh, the inhumanity.

UPDATE: A little justice.

#breaking

@BankofAmerica

confirms to me that #jamesiannazzo, that man arrested for Intimidation Based on Bigotry or Bias and breach of the peace, has been fired.

H/t Naveed Jameli

 

 

 

A Line Of Inquiry

If you are as much a fan of Britain's Line of Duty (available on Netflix) as I am, you will enjoy this lacerating parody as the team interrogates Boris Johnson over partygate. Led By Donkeys, the collective that created it, 

worked with Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice to create a memorial wall of pink hearts opposite parliament.

“We spent a lot of time down there with bereaved families, painting hearts with them. And so we’ve come to see the party scandal, to a certain extent, through their eyes. There are people who sat in a car outside a hospital, unable to hold their loved ones’ hands as they slipped away from Covid, but they just wanted to be close to them.

“Johnson regarded the sacrifices that people were making in such a cavalier way and people are deeply hurt. I think it’s important that there is a price to pay for making these rules and breaking these rules, because people will live for the rest of their lives with [the impact] of abiding by the rules. This matters to people on a deep and visceral level.”

Enjoy this cathartic video.

 

The Costanza Defence

I think there can be little doubt that Boris Johnson, whatever his shortcomings, is a student of Seinfeld.

Here is what he had to say about the drink fests he hosted during Covid-19 lockdowns.

And here is what George Costanza offered as he faced termination after having sex with the office cleaning lady.

And who said watching the telly was a waste of time?

The Unthinking Hordes

H/t Greg Perry

As a student of human behaviour, one of the things this pandemic has made abundantly clear to me is that a significant number of people are ill-equipped to think. Whether through a lack of education or the sometimes cruel play of genetics, there are those amongst us who, no matter the evidence, will insist that their misbegotten notion of reality is the 'real truth.' This is particularly evident in the anti-vaxxer crowd.

Because such people can 'think' only in the broadest of terms, they often resort to hysterical and grossly inappropriate language and historical allusion. This has not escaped the notice of columnist Michael Coren, who begins his piece, There's no vaccination against human cruelty, with a fond memory of his great aunt, who he called bubba.

It wasn’t until long after she died and I was a teenager that I was finally told bubba’s story. She had been in a death camp, and the mark on her arm was a tattoo. The Nazis sadistically scraped them into the flesh of their chosen victims so as to dehumanize them before they were tortured and murdered. She survived, but many of her family and friends did not.

The reason I mention this is because of an increasing and repugnant fetish within the anti-vaccination crowd. Their hysteria, rejection of science and truth, and sheer irrationality are surely self-evident. Now they are comparing their experience to that of the victims of Nazism. They speak of the entirely ethical and admirable COVID vaccination campaign as being “Nazi-like”; they casually throw around the word Holocaust; they even wear yellow stars at demonstrations, and display that image on their social media pages. The yellow star that my bubba was forced to wear.

Coren rightly regards such antics as abhorrent. 

How dare they? How the hell dare they! They insult — they desecrate — the memory of those who suffered and died, and they do it with an obscene absence of self-awareness, empathy and sensitivity. They are using genocide as a cheap political ploy in their crazed campaign, playing with the horror of all that screaming and weeping. Once again, how the hell dare they!

This pandemic will eventually be overcome, and the victors will be the scientists, the medical staff, and the vast majority of ordinary, good, ethical people who were part of the great and communal movement to help save all of us.

But those who blithely trod on the mass graves of the persecuted will not suddenly disappear. Their malice and their arrogance will continue, waiting to be awakened and empowered in some future crisis.

The human condition has always lived with this brokenness — this virus, if you like — and that’s not going to change. Alas, there is no vaccination against cruelty. But while we may not be able to expunge this nonsense, we can at least be aware of it. Fanaticism and ignorance can have truly terrible consequences.

Jesus famously said, "Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do."

I, and countless others, will find forgiveness of those who cause so much pain, suffering and death very, very difficult to muster.

 

Why The Anti-Vaxxers Are Despised

Some seem to have a difficult time understanding the vitriol directed at the strident anti-vaxxers. I hope the following helps clear up any confusion they might be feeling.

A 30-year-old Ontario woman diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer has had her surgery postponed indefinitely and says it could be too late to save her if the procedure keeps getting pushed back.

Woodbridge, Ont. woman Cassandra Di Maria was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and has undergone 17 rounds of chemotherapy since then.

"Now, I'm waiting on my next big surgery," Di Maria told CTV News Toronto on Thursday. "I have no idea when this surgery will happen and I'm at a standstill."

In order to undergo the surgery, doctors told Di Maria in late October she needed to stop chemotherapy for a few weeks so her body would be strong enough to handle the procedure, which was originally scheduled for December. 

She said in December she received a notice saying the surgery was being postponed to January, and then later was told that date was cancelled too.

In an e-mail viewed by CTV News Toronto, a representative from Mount Sinai Hospital told Di Maria her surgery was cancelled because of "the situation with COVID-19" and that "everything is getting cancelled at this point."

I assume the point is clear. Di Maria's chances of survival are monumentally reduced by the selfishness of some of her fellow-citizens. 

As well, some letter-writers offer their withering views of those who are causing our health-care crisis: 

Mounting data shows that unvaccinated people are several times more likely than vaccinated folks to catch COVID-19, experience more severe symptoms, become hospitalized, need an ICU bed and ultimately die from COVID-19.

In this whole process, they tie up a disproportionately larger share of our limited health-care resources and enable the pandemic to rage on more than it should have.

At some point, difficult decisions must be made by our leaders so that those unvaccinated (without medical reason) face the consequence of their choice not to get vaccinated.

One solution might be to prioritize the ICU beds for the vaccinated patients when our ICUs are under strain.

When all ICU beds are full, vaccine-refusers will be moved to regular beds to make room for vaccinated patients.

Surely if they are so adamant about their right to what happens to their own body, they shouldn’t mind that little extra that may come with that choice: a bad case of COVID-19.

Tim Lu, Markham

 Bravo, François Legault! Finally, a premier who’s not afraid to make a bold decision.

It’s about time that unvaccinated people start paying for exacerbating the effect of the pandemic. They are disproportionately responsible for clogging our hospitals, for prolonged lockdowns and for putting their fellow citizens at risk.

There is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t pay for it.

Some will argue that it’s a slippery slope or make comparisons with smokers, however there is no comparison to be made; if the smoker wants to kill himself that’s his problem, but when it comes to a very contagious disease, it affects all of society.

Persuasion doesn’t work as some were suggesting.

Now it’s time to talk money.

Claude Gannon, Markham

Hysterical protests and refusals will not end this crisis. Only fulfilling the requirements of good citizenship will.

 

A Viable Alternative?

Given the contentious nature of measures to force the anti-vaxxers into line, perhaps the following is a viable alternative?

H/t Graeme MacKay

How To Deal With Flagrant Stupidity

H/t Theo Moudakis

Unlike viruses that allegedly ultimately 'burn themselves out', stupidity and the flagrant disregard for public health and safety will always be with us. Toronto Star readers have some ideas on how to deal with them:

Time to raise the price for those who still won’t get vaxxed, Jan. 9

I was born January 1940 into a world at war. One of my earliest memories is of the blackout.

People did this for two reason: First, to protect themselves, and second, to protect the neighbourhood. It was not perfect protection; we all know of the thousands that were killed by bombs and it had its danger, such as tripping over things and the people who thought the darkness gave them the opportunity for crime. Even so, the benefits outweighed the danger.

I think the same should apply to vaccinations: you get vaccinated to protect yourself and the people in your neighbourhood. It is the only protection we have. The benefits outweigh the danger, and it should be the law with fines for those who refuse to follow the rules.

Keith Parkinson, Cambridge, Ont.

 In a democratic society, majority rules. So why is it our spineless politicians are letting the minority — the anti-vaxxers — rule?

It is time to have the vaccine passport mandated for entry to any type of business.

J. Armour, Mississaug

 And finally, a reader offers this about the hapless Erin O'Toole:

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said on TV recently something to the effect of: “We just have to realize not everyone will agree to vaccination.”

Isn’t that like saying we are never going to solve homelessness or drug addiction, so Canadians should just suck it up and learn to live with the reality?

What a great strategy — no more funding for those ongoing issues, so why waste money and resources on problems that seem futile?

Is this the Conservative leader’s plan for balancing the books if he ever became prime minister?

Dorothy Low, Richmond Hill

 

An Apt Follow-Up

This editorial cartoon by Michael De Adder seems an apt follow-up to yesterday's post:

A Failure Of Citizenship

That is the assessment in today's Toronto Star editorial of those who refuse to get vaccinated, thereby holding the rest of us (or, as I like to say, the sane majority) hostage. 

And it is time to start making them pay for their obdurate, anti-social stance.

It is their irresponsibility that is largely to blame for the restraints under which Canadians are currently required to live.

It is no surprise, then, and largely to be applauded, that exasperated jurisdictions from Quebec to countries in Europe have opted to raise the cost of demonstrably anti-social behaviour.

 In Quebec, the province’s health minister Christian Dubé announced this past week that, as of Jan. 18, Quebecers will have to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to access provincial liquor and cannabis stores.

“If they can’t protect themselves, we will protect them against themselves,” said Dubé. “And we will make sure that they understand very clearly that if they don’t want to be vaccinated, they just stay home.”

European jurisdictions are hardening their hearts against the vaccine-refusniks with some relish. For example, the French President wants to make their lives hell:

 Macron told the newspaper Le Parisien that he wants to “piss off” unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated that they’ll relent and accept the vaccine. The unvaccinated, he said, are reneging on the obligations of citizenship.

Other European countries are getting tougher with the unvaxxed. Italy requires proof of vaccination – or of having recovered from COVID — for entry to a host of public spaces. Greece is levying a monthly fine (called a “health fee”) of 100 euros ($144) on people over 60 who won’t get their shots.

Unlike Erin O'Toole, who pleads for understanding and accommodation for those who thumb their noses at the health and safety of their fellow-citizens, most prefer the stick over the carrot at this critical juncture.

But right now the responsible majority are paying an enormous price for the stubbornness of the recalcitrant – and it is not the former who should be asked to make endless accommodations. 

The majority of people who “did the right thing” and got vaccinated are effectively being held hostage to the selfishness of the few. At this point it’s entirely reasonable to raise the price of irresponsibility, and make life more difficult for those who won’t get their shots.

Ontario and other provinces should follow Quebec’s example and turn the screws further on the unvaxxed. 

To that, I have nothing to add other than my whole-hearted agreement. 

 

 

The Unvarnished Truth

 

H/t Theo Moudakis

Truth be told, I don't feel much like writing these days. The news is unrelentingly grim, the pandemic soldiers on, and the stupid continue to run around extolling their 'gospel.' My sympathy/empathy for the unvaxxed is non-existent, and given the deaths they are and will be responsible for through cancelled heart and cancer surgeries because their kind are filling the hospitals, I have reached the point that if they do expire from the disease, I really don't care.

Just like I don't care about the planeload of covidiots that chartered a Sunwing plane to Mexico. You have probably already seen the video, but if not, have a look.

I am happy to report that Sunwing, Air Transat and Air Canada are refusing them transport home. 

Oh, and one more thing. Thirty of the miscreants have come down with Covid. 

My heart does not bleed for them

Extreme Revisionism

You may remember Capitol Hill rioter Jenna Ryan. The blonde, well-put-together Texas real estate agent  travelled on a private jet to join the January 6 festivities and wound up getting into a spot of trouble that netted her 60 days in lockup.

This unrepentant and self-justifying lady granted an interview with NBC's Kate Snow. The house-seller reveals, in my view, a prodigious lack of self-awareness as well as bottomless self-pity as she 'proudly' trumpets her victimhood.

Please start just after the 13-minute mark:

Third Time Is Not Always The Charm

 Somehow, this editorial cartoon speaks to me.

H/t Michael de Adder

As The Year Closes Out

As 2021 comes to a close, if you are still looking for a worthy cause to contribute to and get a tax receipt from, I have a suggestion. But first, allow me to provide a bit of context.

As a teacher for 30 years, my deepest respect went to those who stove the hardest to improve themselves. They might not have been the best writers or the most apt students, but their willingness to work hard meant that I would always be there if and when they sought extra help. That offer of help was extended, of course, to all students, but I always told them they had to ask for it; my forcing them to come to see me would have been a waste both of my time and theirs. 

In that spirit, and also in the spirit of ongoing reconciliation efforts, I would like to heartily endorse a non-profit called Inspire.

Indspire is a national Indigenous registered charity that invests in the education of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people for the long term benefit of these individuals, their families and communities, and Canada.

Our vision is to enrich Canada through Indigenous education and by inspiring achievement. In partnership with Indigenous, private and public sector stakeholders, Indspire educates, connects and invests in First Nations, Inuit and Métis people so they will achieve their highest potential.

I have helped support the organization for awhile now, and its mission to help those seeking higher education resonates with me, as I sure it does with many others.  

If you decide to contribute, you can do so with confidence. Here is what Charity Intelligence Canada has to say about Indspire:

The charity reports that 90% of students who were supported by Indspire’s BBF program graduated from post-secondary. 

According to a 2020 Indspire report on the BBF program, nearly 60% of grant recipients hold a bachelor’s degree or above and more than 17% hold a non-university certificate or diploma. Of BBF recipients who are no longer in school, 89% are employed. 

While Ci highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of Indspire’s results and impact.

Charity Intelligence has rated Indspire as High impact based on its demonstrated impact per dollar spent.

Education may not be a universal panacea, but it is the best tool for success that we have. And in a world in which many of us feel increasing helpless, overwhelmed by forces beyond our control, it is gratifying to know that there are still things we can do that have an impact. 

 

Americans Behaving Badly

While the title would seem to be redundant, the following story demonstrates especially well how crazy our neighbours to the south are:

A Los Angeles woman is facing a federal assault charge after she allegedly punched and spit on a man aboard a recent Delta Air Lines flight following a mask dispute.

Patricia Cornwall was detained Thursday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after passengers told authorities that she had caused a disturbance on Flight 2790 from Tampa.

Cornwall was returning from the restroom when she saw a flight attendant conducting beverage service and blocking the aisle, according to the complaint. After Cornwall asked the flight attendant to help her find her seat, the flight attendant requested that she find an available seat until the conclusion of the beverage service, the complaint says.

 “What am I? Rosa Parks?” said Cornwall, who is White, according to the complaint.

Upon hearing the comment, the complaint says, the male passenger sitting in seat 37C told Cornwall “it was an inappropriate comment and that she ‘isn’t Black … this isn’t Alabama and this isn’t a bus.’ ” He then called her a catchall term popularized in recent years to describe an entitled, demanding White woman who polices other people’s behavior.

“Sit down, Karen,” he said to Cornwall, according to the complaint.

It was then, as they say, that chaos ensued: 

It would appear that flying the friendly skies in the U.S. is becoming an increasingly rare experience.

 

And Now, A Word From Tech Support

I do believe this says it all.
 

When Worlds Collide And Converge

 

While reading the early part of a recent column by Rosie DiManno, as a Canadian I couldn't help but feel a measure of smugness, but that sentiment quickly evaporated the further I got into her piece.

At a school board meeting last month in what I choose to call Bumf--k, Virginia, elected officials dropped all pretence of rational debate by outright calling for the immolation of books they deemed offensive because of sexual explicitness.

“I think we should throw those books in a fire,” declared one councilman. A marginally less combustible colleague chimed in about wanting to “see the books before we burn them so we can identify within our community that we are eradicating this bad stuff.”

While both books, Call Me by Your Name and 33 Snowfish, are critically acclaimed, their respective themes of gay kids and exploited homeless teenagers were just too much for the officials. 

"Standard American reaction," I thought to myself. Next, however, DiManno turned her sights on Canada:.

Some titles in particular have drawn recurring wrath. To wit: “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Three years ago, the Peel District School Board issued a fiat declaring the literary classic by Harper Lee could only be taught “if instruction occurs through a critical, anti-oppression lens.” That followed a recommendation from a pedagogue, Poleen Grewal, associate director of instructional and equity support services.

That, in itself, is not alarming. I can't think of anyone, myself included, who would teach that novel in a historical or cultural vacuum. Indeed, I used to include a recording of Strange Fruit, as well as talk about the history of racism in the U.S. when exploring the novel.

But then things turned uncomfortable.

The Toronto school board got its knickers in a knot last month, rejecting an autobiography by renowned criminal defence lawyer Marie Henein for a book club event, essentially because she (successfully) defended Jian Ghomeshi in his sexual assault trial.

Hamilton’s public school board announced in November that it would be launching a review of all the books in its libraries — and those entering its collection — as part of an equity and learning strategy, blah-blah-blah. Because that’s all the rage now, part and parcel of a societal reckoning with our collective racist history, to hear tell. The upshot could be not just removing contentious books from the curriculum but from libraries, denying students access to books in which they might have an interest. Which surely is counterintuitive to promoting reading and independent critical inquiry.

Just down the road from Hamilton, a similar process is underway, vowing to cull books that don’t meet modern standards — “harmful to either staff or students” — by the Waterloo Region District School Board.

“As our consciousness around equity, on oppression work and anti-racist work has grown, we recognize some of the texts and collections that we have are not appropriate at this point,” Graham Shantz, the board’s co-ordinating superintendent of human resources and equity services, told trustees, as reported by the Waterloo Region Record.

From all of this, DiManno draws a lacerating and, in my view, accurate conclusion.

Where is all this equity lens forensic auditing of books leading? Answer: to an unholy alliance between the left and the right.

There’s nothing more intrinsically virtuous about censorship, whether it’s coming from reactionaries in a lather about sexual content — gender panic and trans rights the cri du jour — or activists on the progressive end of the ideology spectrum sifting for any hint of historical oppression and white or straight privilege.

The banning/burning of books has occurred in many eras, most notoriously that of Nazi Germany. The contemporary zeal for eliminating books that challenge or discomfit the reader has the same genesis and the same result: the narrowing of thought and capacity for critical thinking, no matter its official justification.

Perhaps Ray Bradbury captured this misguided messianic fervour best in his classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451: "It was a pleasure to burn."

 

 

 

If This Is A Recruiting Video

 ... Lorne from Bellville needs a major rewrite.

Johnny “Austin” Fondue

@EatsFood2

Freedom Fighter Lorne from Belleville gets some rapid antigen tests and is confused by the box… #belleville #antivaxxers

Truth

As I continue to fulminate about the benighted in our midst, this seems like an appropriate thought for a Wednesday morning.

Simply Monstrous

As parents, almost all of us want the best for our kids and would do anything to protect them from harm. In the following news report, you will meet a Canadian family divided over Covid-19 shots. That in itself is not news, but when you learn of the medical circumstances of the 11-year-old in the family, I think you might feel as I do that the father's refusal to get the shot is simply unnatural and monstrous. 

Please start at the 17 minute mark.

The Best Of Covid Karma

No words needed from me here.

                                      

                                 

And my personal favourite:

Utterly Toothless

Given the damning report by the auditor general that the Public Heath Agency of Canada did a profoundly incompetent job of tracking travellers assigned to quarantine hotels earlier this year, it is perhaps not surprising to learn about another abject failure by the same agency: meting out punishment for fake vaccine certificates presented at border crossings.

Border officials in both Canada and the U.S. are catching people they suspect of trying to cheat vaccine rules to cross the border by the hundreds — but far fewer are seeing fines.

Although hundreds of allegedly fake and misused vaccine cards and COVID-19 tests have been reported by Canada border officials, the Public Health Agency of Canada has only issued 17 fines related to these reports so far.

Given the public health stakes, the border transgressions are egregious and criminal. And they include presenting fake Covid-19 test results:

A number of cases are being investigated by PHAC, which issued seven fines for suspected falsified or fraudulent COVID-19 test results between Jan. 6 to Nov. 12, that agency said. PHAC said it also issued two fines for suspected falsified or fraudulent proof of vaccination credentials between July 6 and Nov. 12.

Because they have right of entry, Canadians who enter with fake COVID-19-related records are still allowed into the country, but border officials then pass on their information to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which has ability to investigate and issue fines. Non-Canadians could be denied entry.

Because documents are easy to fake, enforcement and deterrence are sorely needed.

Shabnam Preet Kaur, a forensic document examiner with Toronto-based Docufraud Canada, said technology can easily allow people to create a falsified document.

"You just have to download these softwares, for example, Photoshop, and you can just do all the editing as per your convenience," she said.

"Whatever you need to change in a document, you can do it in less than five minutes."

Kaur said it is not difficult to manipulate PDF vaccine certificates.

"I would suggest [the] QR code method is really safer as compared to the PDF of certificates," she said. 

For Ontarians, there is one bright spot in this imbroglio. According to unnamed sources, on Friday the provincial government will announce that the vaccine certificate  currently in use will make way for a QR code as the only acceptable proof.

Perhaps the Public Health Agency of Canada can learn from this example. Their practices, as illustrated above, are essentially toothless. At the very least, it is time they acquired a good set of dentures (or perhaps another body part), in order to protect the public they are mandated to serve.

 

 

Chain Of Fools

As I have said before, people who read this blog will know I have zero patience for the idiot brigades known as anti-vaxxers. Convinced of the 'righteousness' of their cause, these pseudo-martyrs insist on spreading their 'gospel' in the most confrontational ways possible, causing all manner of disruption, discomfort and despair to working people not in the grip of their insane monomania. 

The following took place in an Ottawa Dollarama:

The woman who was recently handcuffed at a children’s vaccine clinic in Whitby and sleeping in a restaurant in Peterborough, looked like she started some of the issues at the Dollarama in Ottawa tonight.

H/t @EatsFood2

Here's what happened when the police arrived:

Message to anti-vaxxers: Please keep your insane preoccupations at home; if you must share your 'wisdom', please do it in chat groups where you can be with your own kind, leaving the rest of us to carry on the best we can during difficult times.

And if all else fails, you might want to work on your choreography.