April 10, 2020

The Positives and Negatives of Being Stuck at Home in LA

What’s the use of living in sunny L.A.? It’s bad enough that it has been raining for what seems like months. Now I have a mayor, Eric Garcetti, telling me I’m not even allowed to go out of my house on Easter weekend.

What’s the use of living in sunny L.A.?

It’s bad enough that it has been raining for what seems like months.

Now I have a mayor, Eric Garcetti, telling me I’m not even allowed to go out of my house on Easter weekend.

Garcetti has been holding daily press conferences to update the local battle with the coronavirus and to scare us into obeying his stricter mitigation edicts like we’re his misbehaving children.

He’s just told me if I go grocery shopping this weekend, I’m going to die.

If I go to a park this weekend, I’m going to die.

If I go out of my house this weekend, I’m going to die.

And if I don’t follow the city’s “guidelines” and wear a mask or a bandana when I shop, I’m going to kill people.

Give me a break.

Just about everything that makes life worth living is already closed. Now Garcetti has ordered grocery stores and everything else that’s still open to close Easter Saturday and Sunday.

I understand we have to keep our social distance, wash our hands and do the right things to stop the spread.

But Garcetti’s press conferences are so negative they make me want to climb up on my roof and jump.

Already I can’t see my grandkids except on Facetime. I can’t get a haircut. I can’t play golf. I can’t get a massage. I can’t go to church — even on Easter Sunday.

What’s worse is that everyone in authority is so negative. It’s all pain and sacrifice and what you can’t do, not what you can do.

The only glimmer of hope I found this week that had anything to do with the coronavirus was contained in what my daughter Ashley wrote on my Facebook page.

Ashley is a kindergarten teacher in the San Fernando Valley. Also speaking for some of her fellow teachers, she thinks that young children whose formal classroom educations have been disrupted by the virus might be able to learn some valuable life lessons while they are stuck at home.

Here’s what she wrote:

“What if???” by Ashley Reagan

If school reopens May 1, students would have been out for over six weeks.

If school doesn’t resume until fall, they would have missed two and a half months of classroom education.

Many parents and educators are rightly concerned about students falling behind if they have to stay home during the coronavirus crisis.

But what if …

What if instead of falling “behind,” these kids are ADVANCED because of their long break from school?

What if they learn to have more empathy, enjoy their family connections more and be more creative?

What if they learn to entertain themselves and learn to love reading and expressing themselves in writing?

What if they learn to enjoy the simple things, like their own backyard and sitting near a window in the quiet?

What if they notice birds building their nests, the dates when different flowers emerge and the calming renewal of a gentle rain shower?

What if they learn to cook, organize their space, do their laundry and keep a well-run home?

What if they learn to stretch a dollar and to live better with less — the practical economic education that is so lacking in the U.S.?

What if they learn to plan shopping trips and eat healthy meals at home?

What if they learn the value of eating together as a family and finding the good to share in the small delights of the everyday?

What if they are the generation who learn to place great value on our teachers and educational professionals, librarians, public servants and the previously invisible essential workers like truck drivers, grocers, cashiers, custodians and health care workers and their supporting staff?

What if among these children whose education has been disrupted, a great leader emerges who had the benefit of a slower pace and a simpler life to truly learn what really matters in this life?

What if when they return to school they are, in reality, AHEAD?

Happy Easter.

Copyright 2020 Michael Reagan

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.