This holiday season, families throughout our community and the nation will continue to endure the pain of empty chairs at the dinner table. They will privately mourn the loss of loved ones due to COVID-19.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there have been more than 1 million deaths in the United States due to COVID-19 and the bungled reaction to the disease. I have read studies that claim this estimate is far too low.
Indiana lost more than 25,000 souls to COVID. That is almost the same number the state lost during the Civil War, and more than double what the state lost in World War II. In another morbid form of calculation, that would be like if the entire town of Franklin was wiped off the map.
The estimated death toll from 9/11 is a little under 3,000. That means that the death toll from COVID was like having a 9/11 every single day for 333 days in a row — almost a year’s worth of 9/11s.
But this is just the beginning. Many other people died because they did not seek medical care during the pandemic. Depression also added to the toll as many people struggled from the isolation. Others will suffer the effects of long-term COVID for the rest of their lives. We also know people who lost their jobs. Throughout our nation, businesses failed. Many will never come back. The economic loss to our communities has been staggering. In one way or another, we have all paid a terrible price.
The disease also drove a wedge between friends and family members, ripping our communities apart. What started as a public health crisis unnecessarily morphed into a political divide. Those wounds may never heal.
I have a simple proposal. We should have a national day of mourning each year to remember those we have lost. We take time other days of the year, including Memorial Day and 9/11, to commemorate the lives we have lost as a nation. We also use those days to celebrate the brave men and women who served their country. Similarly, we could use a national COVID day of commemoration to honor first responders, doctors, nurses, and the essential workers who kept our nation functioning during a time of crisis.
They risked their lives to serve us. I also suggest that we build a few monuments and memorials, places to celebrate those we have lost and quietly contemplate the pain we have endured as a nation.
I hope this would begin to bind the nation’s wounds. It would allow many of us to grieve publicly, to share our loss with others. I think it might also start a process to heal our political divide.
But I am not optimistic that this will come to be. Planning a national day of mourning for COVID would soon be loaded with all sorts of political agendas. That will sabotage any attempt to bring us together. It would also take planning, vision, and money. It seems like all three of those things are in short supply right now. We would have to set aside our politics for the greater good.
This means that an event which had such a tragic and profound impact on our lives will be lost in time. Like the influenza pandemic of 1918, which also took so many lives, the recent pandemic will be a footnote. Our pain will be lost in history.
I certainly don’t have all the answers in terms of dealing with grief and loss. I’m no psychologist. But I do know that continuing merrily along as if nothing has happened, ignoring our pain, just means that the suffering will continue. Taking a moment to grieve together might help us all.
Aaron Miller is one of The Republic’s community columnists and all opinions expressed are those of the writer. He has a doctorate in history and is an associate professor of history at Ivy Tech Community College-Columbus. Send comments to [email protected].
