Virus: Americans versus chuckleheads

More than a week into turning your home into a jail rather than a castle, I am (happily) surprised by the docility of the American people. As far as I can tell, aside from the thin edge of chuckleheads, most Americans are doing what is asked of them, and with little complaint.

Rich Zeoli (Photo: WPHT)

How do I judge that? I turn to the well of discontent known as the internet, and find shut-in jokes and bitching, but no mentions of Ruby Ridge, for instance. Maybe I’d have to go to the Dark Web to find the skinheads, Nazis and white supremicists. 

Speaking of chuckleheads, that was the word used by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on a patron at a Wegmans who deliberately coughed on a clerk and said he had the coronavirus bug.

Identified as the moron was 50-year-old George Falcone who was charged with terroristic threats. Somehow that seemed funny to WPHT1210-AM host Rich Zeoli, who ridiculed the entirely appropriate charge. Assault would also be appropriate.

This could be even bring a biological terrorism charge.

I wonder if Zeoli would have been so nonchalant had Falcone coughed on Zeoli’s young son, Patrick? Or if someone with HIV spit on a cop. Would Rich find that funny? 

I don’t think so. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. 

Both Mayor Jim Kenney and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mentioned some mouth breathers who were not observing the protocol of social distance, staying out of crowds and incessant hand washing.

AP reported hundreds of masks stolen in Portland, Ore., a Missouri man coughing on two store clerks, and some Bowie, Md., dumbass wearing an orange vest and blue surgical mask asking to be admitted to homes to inspect for coronavirus.

There also have been scattered reports of Asian-Americans having been bullied and threatened, but no physical violence I could find reported. 

This is bad, but statistically insignificant in a nation of 330 million people. I said the same thing last year about a small rise in anti-Semitic attacks. We can’t let the jackasses rattle us, or dispirit us. We are better than that and most Americans are going along with the program and protecting their neighbors. As we all should.

I don’t know how long this will go on, and neither do you. 

The thing to know is it will end, so do not yield to depression and pessimism.

Stu Bykofsky

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