Village, SoHo pauses to
thank healthcare heroes
Every night at 7 p.m., residents of
the Village, SoHo and surrounding
neighborhoods have paused to
open their windows and applaud the army
of healthcare workers on the front lines of
the coronavirus outbreak.
Some of them ring bells on the street,
while others bang on pots and pans, cheering
on those who risk their lives every day
PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY
to help those suffering from the contagion.
Here are images of some of those who
participated in such tributes on April 17
and 18 along 6th
There aren’t that many huge apartment
buildings between Houston and Canal
Street, and in the area of 6th Avenue and
Prince Street.
Editorial
Have they all gone mad?
The coronavirus pandemic in this
country is a national horror — tens
of thousands dead, hundreds of
thousands sickened, people driven into
economic ruin from quarantine, and all of
us living together in anxiety and fear over
this microscopic enemy in our midst.
But now, a sinister force has emerged to
compound the pain and anger we feel over
this situation.
A small yet vocal group of science deniers
and self-proclaimed freedom fi ghters have
started protesting lockdowns in their states.
They come carrying American fl ags and
Gadsden fl ags — echoing the rise of the Tea
Party a decade ago — demanding “liberty”
(whatever that means to them) and claiming
that the virus isn’t that big of a deal.
They’re egged on by a president who
tweeted on Friday a call to “liberate” states
where social distancing measures are in
effect to curb a highly contagious, highly
lethal virus. These states also happen to
have governors angry with the president’s
lethargic response to this crisis.
And these protesters — many of whom,
not surprisingly, are blindly devoted to
this president (and little else) — don’t care
about the risk of infection they or their
loved ones face.
They selfi shly want to get back to normal
now, even if it means thousands of others
will get sick and die in a second, horrendous
wave of coronavirus infections.
Have they all gone mad?
We are in a national crisis, fi ghting a war
against an invisible enemy that sickens and
kills indiscriminately. As in previous wars,
we need unity to defeat it.
But if large numbers of people choose to
ignore and reject science and facts — then
what?
How can anyone minimize what’s
happened in our country? How can such
selfi shness continue to reign here?
There is no second side to this story. We
will not equivocate the gravity and reality of
the coronavirus pandemic to their blatant
political opportunism, fantastical conspiracy
theories and pure selfi shness. No one should.
The situation calls for national unity.
Yet this president and the deniers whom
he comforts are failing to demonstrate such
patriotic resolve to do whatever it takes
to stop coronavirus and help their fellow
Americans — even if it means self-sacrifi ce
and temporary pauses on normal life.
Again, we ask: Have they all gone mad?
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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