(01:05):
All right, my friends. So today is Memorial day 2020, and you know, I always think it’s strange when people say things like happy Memorial day because it’s kind of a somber holiday and if not somber certainly a serious holiday and I think it should be treated as such. So I definitely hope that you’re happy, but I won’t wish you a happy Memorial day. I would like to start off by paying respects and saying thank you to all of those military service, men and women veterans first responders, police, firemen, EMS workers, hospital workers, doctors, nurses, essential workers
(02:01):
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, for your service and for your sacrifice. And you know, I don’t know if people realize this, but when somebody sacrifices for their country, for their city, for their family, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, it’s not, it is not just them that is making the sacrifice. It is their family is their friends. It is anyone who cares about that person. And you know, I think that Memorial day takes on a very special and kind of immediate meaning this year. And excuse me, in light of Corona virus we’ve lost a hundred thousand people. We’ve lost a hundred thousand us citizens. And, you know, if I could make one wish, I know that Memorial day is not exactly a wishing holiday, but if I could make one wish or two wishes it would really be that we as a people, we as the human race, we as the world, and that includes animals and nature and the environment and grass and trees, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, can somehow work together.
(03:20):
And that should not be dependent upon what country we’re from, what city we’re from, what political party we represent, because we are one world. And you know, I am in Southern California right now and I spent a good part of the day yesterday on the beach. And thankfully, you know, I don’t want to talk about social distancing except right, right. You know, at this exact second. But I want to say that one of the amazing thing that I saw was that there were just pods of dolphins swimming about 50 feet from shore. Okay. No one was fighting. No dolphins were arguing as far as I could tell. No, dolphins were, you know, attacking anybody else, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They were just happy being dolphins. Okay. My point in telling you this is that human beings must remember that the earth was here long before us.
(04:27):
The environment was here long before us, animals, plants, trees, forests, oceans, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, have all been here long before us. And if we’re not careful, they will all be here long after us. Okay. And so if there’s one thing I would hope, I’d hope that we can all put our differences aside because our differences pale in comparison to our similarities. Okay. We all cry when a family member dies. We all bleed when we’re cut. We all scream when we stub our toe, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe not. But you get the idea. My point is that we have so much in common with each other and yet over and over and over and over again, we want to focus on the minuscule ways that we’re different. And if we can get together and do that, then guess what? We will be able to minimize the amount of military sacrifice required on behalf of our service, mem members and their families. We will be able to minimize the amount of suffering in the world related to disease, natural disasters et cetera, et cetera. And that includes not just for us but for, again, the animals and the environment that they live in and that we live in and that we share and that we should be patrons of instead of you know, kind of
(06:17):
Barons robber barons of in which we take anything and everything that we can and figure out ways constantly to do so more expediently. And I think we’ve gotten some signals lately. So here’s the thing. So you know, Corona virus. Okay. So it looks like most of the country has opened up and whereas for the majority of people I see are making really good decisions and those good decisions in my life opinion include either staying home, if you’re not staying home, it’s to certainly take universal precautions, meaning that we make the assumption that anyone and everyone that we come in contact with you know, is a potential, not a probable source of infection, but a potential source of infection. And we act accordingly. How do we act accordingly? We social distance, we stay apart from each other. Okay. we wear masks, we wash our hands frequently, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
(07:23):
Everything that was four weeks ago and two weeks ago and a week ago is the same in my opinion. Okay. You don’t have to follow it because these things are not set by law. They’re set by natural order of things. So virus does not respond to laws. Okay. And so, you know, you could say, Hey, guess what? The president did this, or the governor did this, or the mayor did this, or the school principal did this virus doesn’t give a damn virus, doesn’t give a damn. So at this point, we all know about hand-washing. We all know about staying home. We all know about sheltering in place. We all know about social distancing. We all know about facial coverings, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There are going to be people who choose to abide by these suggestions slash recommendations and there will be people who don’t. So as a member of this community who I’ve been speaking to for decades about prevention of infection, I’m going to say, guess what? If we had never heard of it, of Corona virus, okay, but we have chronic respiratory disease. We still fear
(08:36):
The flip. We still fear the common cold. We still fear pneumonia. We still fear an exacerbation of our CLPD or pulmonary fibrosis or pulmonary hypertension or NTM or bronchiectasis or cystic fibrosis, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And act accordingly because all the things that you do to protect yourself against those things, common cold, influenza, pneumonia exacerbation are all the same things that are very effective against coronavirus. Okay? And think about it. If we would set the clock back a year ago, the questions would be, Hey, I’ve been invited to a birthday party where my grandchildren have just gotten over the flu or a common cold, or my sister just had pneumonia and she wants to take me on a vacation. What should I do? All the same, all the same. That is the beauty of universal precautions. That is the beauty of being prepared.
(09:38):
That is the beauty of being educated and knowing what you should and shouldn’t do. And my friends, I promise you, I trust you. Okay? I trust you more than I trust the average individual walking in the street. Why? Because we have been preparing for this situation for decades. We have been prepared. We have been drilling. We have been running drills. We have been, you know practicing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We know what to do here. Okay. We know what to do and we’re not stupid and we’re going to do it. Okay? Now I’ve seen some very, very bad decisions being made, okay? I saw a group of people in the pool partying like it’s 1999 I’ve seen some people walking down streets that are packed with people, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Use your best judgment, okay? Use the tools that you have been given.
(10:40):
Use the skills, use the situations. Think about the situations that you have been training for for all this time of living and being aware, warrior with COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, bronchiectasis and TM, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and use your judgment. Okay? Comes to who I would ask for instructions and recommendations. I would come to you, my brethren, okay? I would come to you because I know that you guys know what’s going on and if something doesn’t feel right to you, okay? Then make the best decision for you, okay? Make the best decision for you. And as your mother used to tell you, if every everybody else were jumping off the Brooklyn bridge, would you jump off the Brooklyn bridge? If your answer is yes, then by all means do something stupid. If the answer is no, stick to your guns.
(11:47):
Stick to your training, stick to your knowledge, stick to your drills, and understand that this is not a sprint. This is a marathon, okay. And the early bird out is not going to get the worm. At least not the worm they want. Okay? So take it easy. Be safe. My friends. Be smart if you’re stuck at home boot camp, boot camp, boot camp. Okay. Here’s a question. When do I think it’s going to be safe to come outside and join the human race and see our grandkids? Okay. So super tough calls. Super tough call. Okay. And I think that it’s really going to be different for each kind of group of people and each kind of family unit. So let me give you an example, Barbara. I don’t know who you live with. I’m going to make up an imaginary two persons that you live with and a dog and a cat.
(12:49):
Okay. So you live in a, in a house with three people, a dog and a cat. Nobody’s going out. Nobody’s coming for at least 14 to 17 days. Your children and your grandchildren live in a house, okay? Nobody’s come in. Nobody’s come out for at least 14 days to 17 days, okay? So do I suggest that seven different family units get together and have Thanksgiving dinner and bring in all this and maybe she snuck out to get coffee and maybe this one snuck out for a date with her boyfriend or he snuck out to play hockey with his friends. Okay. That poisons the pool. And even this is like, this is like food coloring. So even one drop in the pool is going to change the risk factor. Okay. But if you know that they’ve been in for a period equal to or greater than quarantine time and you know that you’ve been in for a period equal than or greater than quarantine time, then in my opinion, you can get together and spend some time outdoors.
(14:03):
Okay. Spend some time apart. Okay. Socially distanced. Okay. But again, even in that case, if you’re sure that nobody has been out, if you sure that there’s no potential, not probable potential chance of exposure, then you can probably go and spend the day. But you can’t start doing that with seven different families. I’ve heard of people who say, Hey, you’re going to be our family. We’re only going to get together with you, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then they say, wait, what do you mean only? And they say, this family has been doing the same thing with seven other families. No, but if it’s one and one and everybody knows that everybody’s safe, okay, then there’s zero chance of catching or contract and Corona virus. Okay, I’m going to end it here. People. I want to say on this Memorial day, thank you to all of our service members, men and women of the armed forces.
(15:02):
And I’d like to say thank you to our first responders. I would like to say thank you to our police, our firemen, our MTS, our doctors, our nurses, our healthcare professionals, our essential workers. And you know, again my hope would be that we can learn from this. My hope would be that we can come away from this smarter and stronger for future generations. And the way that we do that is we opt to follow science, we opt to follow human kindness, we opt to follow you know, a feeling of togetherness and we opt to follow stewardship of this planet and respect for this planet and everything on it. And that includes you know, trees and flowers and plants and grass and animals, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Humans. We must stop this insanity and give up this insane idea that this earth was put here so that we have a smorgasbord of ways that we can take, take, take, take.
(16:16):
Because guess what? I think the earth is giving us plenty of signals. And guess what? If the earth or the universe or God or Allah or Jesus or whatever it is, but you believe it, okay? Really wanted us gone. We’d be gone, okay? So we got a warning, okay, we got a little ass whooping here, okay? And the question is, are we going to learn from that ass whooping and come away and be better humans and better humans? In some cases, that’s like an oxymoron, okay? But I would say better citizens of this earth and planet and universe. And that’s my wish for this Memorial day. And for those of you that serve truly we have no way to repay you and thank you for making the sacrifice that allows the rest of us to be safe. Have a great day. My friends.