Notably Quotable: “This pandemic, and the accompanying economic downturn, are a turning point…”

“This pandemic, and the accompanying economic downturn, are a turning point. Just as Americans have done in other crises in our history, we are rediscovering that our greatest strength is not in how rich and powerful we can make a few, but rather in all of us, working together. It strikes me as no accident that it is at this moment a report has surfaced that Attorney General William Barr, a leading member of this administration, has asked for the ability to arrest and imprison people without trial, for to preserve a hierarchy under these conditions will require an extraordinary assumption of power to suppress dissent.”

— Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From America, March 21, 2020

*****

“There really is no middle ground, and it’s very tough to say to people: ‘Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies in the corner. We want you to keep spending because there’s maybe a politician who thinks GDP growth is all that counts.’”

— Bill Gates

*****

“In the absence of impeachment and the fortitude to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, we are left with one alternative—to oust him next November. That’s provided, of course, that the coronavirus doesn’t arm Trump with a pretext to suspend the election and declare martial law. Think that couldn’t happen? I would have thought so, too, but that was before the virus shut down life as we knew it in America.”

— Bill Blum, Unequal Justice: Where Are Impeachment and the 25th Amendment When We Need Them?

*****

“Each of us is only as healthy as the least-healthy among us.”

— Robert Reich, The Kind of Coronavirus Response Package We Need

*****

“Solidarity now requires maintaining a loving distance.”

— Lucas Bozzo, I’m A Canadian Quarantined In Italy. My Message: Self-Isolate Now

*****

“People of every nationality, every race, every ethnicity around the world have been infected, and are dying from COVIS-19. We can only fight this deadly virus as one people. As a global community we should be promoting international cooperation and sharing resources for testing, medical treatment, and the critical search for an effective vaccine. That, not blame, is how to end this crisis.”

— Chuck Idelson, Frontline Nurses Condemn Trump’s Racism and Cruelty Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

*****

“It’s a rare situation when the lives of others are in the hands of regular people everywhere, young and old, rich and poor, no matter your occupation, and no matter where you live. We’re living it right now. Please take it so, so seriously.”

— Clayton Dalton, I’m an ER doctor. Please take coronavirus seriously

*****

“And make sure to hold the people who enabled this clusterfuck accountable for what they’ve done. Make sure they pay for sending us in to hold the line with our lives, because they couldn’t be bothered to be ready or prepared.”

— Kellen Squire, RN, The fatalistic view from an ER Nurse on what’s ahead.