Rebuilding the Anthill

Once, I accidentally kicked over an anthill in the backyard. It wasn’t complete destruction, though the damage was significant. Almost immediately, the ants came out and began the process of rebuilding. If I were their size, it would have seemed like a monumental task that would take a long time.

Now I am no entomologist, but it certainly appeared as if every single ant was involved in the repair work. There were no ants hanging back, as in, it’s not my job, it doesn’t affect me, it doesn’t align with my goals, or I’m being deprived of my Constitutional rights. They were all busy carrying whatever they needed to repair their home. I guess the only ant not visibly working was the queen (OK, she really did have another job!).

I may be romanticizing a bit here, but all those ants seem programmed with one purpose and one agenda. We are not quite like that, but situations come up when we need to be. The last big thing that seemed to involve most everyone in this country for a long period of time was World War II.

Our current pandemic is not just about testing, tracing, mask-wearing, social distancing, staying home or going out again. It’s about logistics and distribution. The swabs are over here, the reagents over there. Some states have more than enough personal protective equipment and others don’t. People are in five-mile food lines in Texas while milk is being poured out on the ground in California. Hogs are put down in Minnesota without being turned into food, because the farmers can’t feed the animals while the meat can’t be processed, and if growing crops doesn’t pencil out on some level for the agriculture folks in Kansas, they don’t get picked. I’ve heard that the military is really good at logistics. Why haven’t these forces been mobilized on a national level, and someone with military experience put in charge of logistics and supply-chain repair?

Even when it comes to distributing relief money, it still takes months for the government to actually put it into everyone’s hands. At some point, there will be a COVID vaccine, and hundreds of millions of doses will be available. How will all that be distributed, and who will get it first?

COVID is not a drill, or a conspiracy, or a competition, or some other country’s fault. It’s an emergency happening right here, right now, and we haven’t really been acting accordingly, especially at the highest levels. Those of us who have anthills in the backyard might learn something about how things get done.