Swine Flu Preparations

Telling Secrets has a great post on the fear generated by the potential flu pandemic.  In people's fear they tend to scapegoat and in this case it is Mexicans, who are often scapegoated anyway. Fear is such a basic  emotion, as is anger.  I wonder if maybe it is anger that is fueling some of the fear-particularly anger about the economy.  People who are in a negative frame of mind are not really able to make good decisions and we really need to be able to make good decisions right now.  Perhaps one of the reasons the President Obama is so well-liked is that he projects a calmness and positiveness that helps to counteract all this negativity.

Of course we really do need to be careful to help prevent the spread of flu, but we don't need to panic and "round up the usual suspects."  It is allergy season, and so many people with the sniffles don't have the flu, but do have allergies.  I'm going to ban intinction starting today at the mid-week Eucharist and talk about the potential for communion in one kind.  We will print up information materials for people to take home on how to prepare for an emergency, although the locals are pretty good in this respect since weather emergencies are not unknown here in the winter.  We'll also get our call-up list up to date and make sure that our shut-ins are taken care of.  It may take a while for this flu to get to Maine, but it is possible.  New York is not that far away and we are an isolated community with only one doctor and a clinic that is likely to be overwhelmed in the case of an emergency.  Besides, I think it would be good for our parish to  really think through what they would do in an emergency and this flu has the potential to come in waves.