Let's get one thing straight - no one is happy about this.
My best friends have had their graduations ripped out from beneath them. My own summer opportunities that I've been looking forward to all year have been put online, and too many college students are left without jobs or a way to pay for their rent. Small businesses are suffering tremendously, and economies are collapsing.
Everyone is inconvenienced by this, everyone would love for things to go back to normal, and everyone is tired of hearing about social distancing. Nevertheless, we have to keep going.
Many states haven't even reached their peak. My own state reached its own only three days ago, and people are already calling for my small beach town to open up for tourists all over the country to reconvene again, putting our community (mostly made up of elderly people) at extreme risk. Afterwards the cases of the virus will again increase, and we will again be put in the same, if not worse, position.
The truth of the matter is, if you're protesting and you are not part of an at-risk community, no one cares if you get the virus. You will likely be asymptomatic or show very mild flu symptoms and be fine. No one is telling you to stay at home for your own safety, as there is not much for you to be afraid of. We're telling you to stay at home for the safety of others who are not quite as lucky as you, those who you will eventually pass to virus on to.
The stay at home order is to protect people with a weakened immune system. It's for the little kid down the street who has been in and out of hospitals his entire life. It's for the 60 year old woman who battled cancer and is still recovering. It's for the healthy teenager with asthma. And it's for all your family members with diabetes, heart disease, or liver disease.
When the stay at home order is lifted, these people will be in real danger. Who are you to put their lives at stake for your own convenience? If they were standing in front of you, would you look at them and tell them their lives don't matter to you as much as your actions suggest?
None of this is about you. No one is trying to infringe on your constitutional rights. No one is committing bio-terrorism. We're just battling a pandemic, something that has happened throughout history and will continue to happen in the future.
In the meantime, you can literally save lives by staying home.
Sincerely, someone who would really like to go outside again.
