Finneran: A Most Memorable Spring

Saturday, April 04, 2020

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Former Speaker Thomas Finneran

We will not easily forget this Spring.

Nor should we.

The Spring of 2020 has yet to provide the boost and the bounce that we usually enjoy as Winter fades.

Homo sapiens have retreated to their caves. They are under orders from other homo sapiens to self-quarantine. Wow—that sounds like great fun.

In the meantime, the Northern Hemisphere temporarily tilts ever closer toward the sun, lengthening our days and signaling Nature’s children, its flora and fauna, to bloom, to sing, and to prance.

My escapes from quarantine are brief but delightful. Croci and daffodils are in full flower. Hyacinths and tulips surge from the ground. Forsythia bushes light up every street, brighter than Broadway. Goldfinches have returned and the male cardinal plays Caruso to his bride. Baltimore orioles, the birds not the baseball team, will soon flit through our shrubs, giving us glimpses of brilliance unavailable from Sherwin-Williams. And the robins are ubiquitous.

There is no escaping the news of the Coronavirus crisis. It dominates the pages of every newspaper. Nor is there any escaping the effects of the coronavirus. Walkers abound. Drivers not so much. Traffic, as we experienced it just two months ago, has disappeared. The world has slowed down.

I now notice the occasional plane in the sky. Not so long ago I noticed the opposite, a continuous string of planes strung out along the skyline as they assumed their place in an airborne ferry system of takeoffs and landings. I’ll bet that air traffic controllers are doing a lot of crossword puzzles these days.

I’d be reminded of lore from the grim days of the Depression, a period of economic fright and huddled families, but for one crucial difference---the penetration of television into every single American household.

Not only are there countless channels and 24/7 news programs available all day every day. Now there is the escapism and entertainment of thousands of movies and documentaries similarly available. The sports junkies, the history buffs, the drama fans can indulge themselves to the fullest, subject only to which family member has the remote. By the way, raise your hand if you’re old enough to remember having to get up to change the channel! And that there were only four channels to choose from!!

Three thoughts crowd my mind.

First, I doubt whether K-12 students will be able to recover the academic ground they have lost. There is simply not enough time to cover the two or more months of lost classroom time and teaching. In fact, it is conceivable that the balance of the school year will be cancelled and that the testing of student achievement will have to be adjusted.

Second, there is a rumor that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will soon play a Coronavirus charity round of golf, to be joined by Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. If true, I will watch that from beginning to end. My wife will not. Thank the Lord that we have two televisions.

Third, America will once again prove to be the indispensable nation in the world. The American habit of dismissal and distraction will be replaced by the American habit of determination and achievement. World Wars I and II offer examples of a nation determined to ignore the world until the world knocked loudly and it could do so no longer.

So too today. We have been caught flat-footed and ill-prepared for a disease that crossed the oceans at almost the speed of sound. Yet now, belatedly, we have our focus and the world waits for America to do what it does so well.

America is the world’s indispensable nation. Bet on America.