DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com Sunday, March 29, 2020 33
“You idiot!” she screamed at me
that first morning. That was a little
tough to hear at that moment. But I
am fluent in my wife’s peculiar Italian
dialect, and I understood what she
was saying was: “I’m scared.” She
knew firsthand how unpredictable
and deadly this disease can be. And
she was desperate to protect the one
thing that she could.
Since then, we have done our best
to navigate an impossible situation
and, most importantly, avoid having
me infect her. I quarantined myself in
our second bedroom and limited
myself to trips to the bathroom. We
tried to stay connected with the means
we had — binging Netflix shows to-
gether from our separate rooms.
But it was a struggle. I am prone to
be in my head on my best days, and theisolation made me withdraw more.
Simona makes the average Italian look
unaffectionate; she was craving any
kind of interaction since we couldn’t
touch.
It wore on her and wore on her
until we had another blow up on Day
1 1. Suffice it say, I started being more
emotionally present.
Simona’s true gift to me in this crisis
has been, as is often the case in our
marriage, perspective. Indeed, I wish
every New Yorker — really every
American — had the benefit of being
close to an Italian right now and see-
ing this crisis through their tear-rav-
aged eyes.
How we could not learn from their
now obvious mistakes? How could we
witness the devastation this disease
has wrought in a Western democracythat we have such a close cultural
connection to and not be prepared?
How could we allow kids to go on
spring breaking in their Florida petri
dishes when we know the damage
that was done at Italian soccer
matches held right up until their na-
tional lockdown?
Sorry, Mr. President, we sure knew
what was coming. And come it has: In
an eerie parallel to what’s happened in
Italy, NYC medical authorities have
begun erecting temporary morgues
outside some local hospitals.
Yet to pin this mess purely on
Trump is too facile. This was a coun-
try-wide, top-to-bottom failure to
prepare and protect our people. Most
obviously, our elites and leaders at
every level refused to make the hard
choices necessary to get ahead of thecurve: the Republicans in Washington
who mimicked Trump’s discredited
talking points to the pro sports leagues
that kept holding games in packed
arenas only until their players tested
positive to Mayor de Blasio’s inexplica-
ble decision to keep the city’s schools
open while the pandemic was already
in full swing.
They knew it and blew it and de-
serve to be held accountable.
The most distressing part of this
episode, though, is the behavior of our
fellow citizens — and what that says
about the state of our national charac-
ter.
Unlike their leaders, most average
Americans were evidently not familiar
with the real-time case study happen-
ing in Italy — which itself is a damning
indictment of our ignorance of the
world around us.
But regardless, once the overdue
calls for mass social distancing mea-
sures were being echoed by U.S. lead-
ers everywhere, millions of Americans
selfishly chose to continue their daily
routines as if the pandemic were a
myth. I am looking especially at you,
my Hasidic friends in Williamsburg.
Shanda.
Crises like this tend to reveal the
essence of things. The financial crash
of 2008 laid bare a corrupt financial
industrial complex and the deep struc-
tural imbalances in our economy that
persist to this day. In this case, the
coronavirus has shown we have a
nasty cultural infection that won’t
disappear when the pandemic re-
cedes.
The main symptoms: a pervasive
sense of entitlement, a deep disdain
for science, and a blinding tribalism
that will lead people to die rather than
acknowledge the legitimacy of the
other side. As frightening and deadly
as COVID-19 is, this is the plague we
have the most to fear from. It’s the
kind of sickness that kills empires —
and has no known cure.
Here is a good place to start, though.
Let’s follow the remarkable lead set by
our own Gov. Cuomo, who is under-
going a Bobby Kennedy-like transfor-
mation right before our eyes and offer-
ing a daily antidote to Trumpism. Let’s
look to leaders who are committed to
telling the truth no matter the cost;
who speak all for us whether we voted
for them or not; who save their great-
est compassion for the least among us;
and who have the wisdom to remind
us to say simple kindnesses like “I love
you” and “I miss you” to our loved
ones.
Now, they don’t have to be Italian
American. But at this moment, it sure
doesn’t hurt. Forza New York!
Gerstein is the founder and CEO of
Gotham Ghostwriters. He formerly
served as a speechwriter and communi-
cations director to Sen. Joe Lieberman.
He lives on the Upper West Side.AAWWAAKKEENNIINNGG
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