I am too fucking exhausted to blog today, but too wound up not to. It occurs to me that getting sick would not be a good look right now, but on the other hand, I’d hate for silence to suggest complacency.

I’m going to resolve this dilemma by relying on a little help from my friends, or at least one of them. So today, I’m taking a break and referring you to the latest post on Chris Sciabarra’s blog, which you should have been reading the whole time anyway.

A couple days ago, I wrote a post trying to capture the siege-like situation at hospitals in New Jersey. A few days ago, The New York Times published this brilliant piece describing twelve hours with emergency medical services in Paterson, New Jersey (worth contrasting with my brief description of a drive through Paterson about a week earlier). Both of those stories are now obsolete just a few days after posting them. Right now, things are worse than either of those items could capture, both in New York and in New Jersey. And they’re only going to get worse. It’s impossible–or at least very difficult–to keep up with events but stay rigorously factual. I’m trying, but have not been able to pull it off.

Chris describes a trip to the grocery store where he lives in Brooklyn, and many other valuable things besides. Very different from my experiences here in western New Jersey, but similar to my experiences in eastern Jersey, and very easily imaginable.

Once I catch my breath, I’ll be back to blogging on a long list of things, perhaps most importantly, efforts at mutual aid for low-income workers and others. Will also try to spruce up my page of things that can be done to help out. Eventually, I will try to become a little more philosophical about this crisis, and also talk a bit about what it’s like to teach COVID-19 under lockdown (as I’m doing in my critical thinking class, and will eventually do in my applied ethics class). Soon.

Meanwhile, stay the fuck at home (compatible with your needs and the requirements of social solidarity, and any other important value I may be forgetting whose exercise doesn’t unnecessarily impose extra risks or labor on anyone).