LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Back in the 1950s the fear of nuclear attack meant all of us in schools to practice getting under our desks.
In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon urged us to go 55 miles per hour over fear of high fuel prices.
After the tragic events of 9/11, President George W. Bush urged us to go shopping.
The coronavirus is the latest enigmatic threat that has confronted our country.
In this case, we've been asked to back away from traveling to foreign countries and to keep from gathering in large groups.
It means TV talk shows without studio audiences, no political rallies, no professional sports, no NCAA tournament games. It means schools closed and performances canceled.
It meant a suspension of my own reading tour in schools across Arkansas.
And as strange and unreal as all this seems, we will do it because that's what we do.
We pull together and do whatever it takes to ward off an attack, economic uncertainty, and unwanted viruses.
Some people are bound to complain. Some will put this in the same category as Y2K. Some will scoff, but they will do it.
It is the very definition of a moral system. The regulation of self-interest to make cooperative societies possible.
Our society, our America, where in 2020, the weirdest thing has happened.
By staying apart, we have never been more together.