COVID-19 anniversary and the kindness of Canadians

It was five years ago today — March 13, 2020 — that President Donald Trump declared COVID-19 to be a national emergency. It came amid movie stars Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announcing they had tested positive for the coronavirus, a global stock market crash, the NBA suspending its regular season, Broadway going dark, etc., etc. Soon, the schools, and almost everything, would be closed.

So much happened in a few whirlwind days.

So much more has happened since then. Lordy, so much more.

One of the things I must remind myself of, and that is increasingly difficult to find these days in the United States, is how much grace there was in 2020, even with Trump as president. 

And not just in the United States, of course. Brian Busby, author of the outstanding book blog The Dusty Bookcase, recently sent me a piece of early 2021 ephemera that tells one small story of how Canada tried with deal with the isolation brought on by the necessary COVID-19 lockdowns. Canadians were given these free, postage-paid postcards "to reach out to a friend or family member, whether they're in town or anywhere in Canada, courtesy of Canada Post." A small gesture in the grand scheme of things, but an incredibly kind one.

More than 13 million of the postcards were printed and distributed. At the time, it cost about $1 Canadian to mail a postcard within the country (not including finding or buying a postcard). So it was especially good for folks on tight finances.

Mediaplus had the contract to design the postcards. You can see all of the designs here. 

In a March 2021 interview, Canada Post's Sylvie Lapointe told NPR's All Things Considered: "We just thought we need to do something for Canadians and try to put a smile on each other's face and to tell someone that you care about them and you've been missing them for the past year. ... A lot of people seem to be sending them to someone in long-term care, so someone who's been isolated from their family for a long time."

Nowadays, when Canadians are sending each other postcards or messaging each other, they're likely discussing that the hell is wrong with the United States. President Trump 2.0 continued his bizarre imperialist ramblings today about our wonderful neighbor to the north:  "To be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. It doesn't, we don't need anything they have. As a state, it would be one of the great states anyway. This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it between Canada and the U.S., just a straight artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago, and, uh, makes no sense. It's so perfect as a great and cherished state keeping Oh, Canada, the national anthem. I love it. I think it's great. Keep it. But it'll be for the state. One of our greatest states, maybe our greatest state."

As Brian Busby notes: "American wine and spirits have been pulled from our liquor stores. American fruit and vegetables are spoiling in our grocery stores. Like Covid, this is like nothing I've ever seen."

And like nothing we ever fathomed seeing, or wanted to see.