We may be stuck indoors more then we’d prefer, but the methods of communication in 2020 are countless.
Tweets, emails and Zooms. That’s how I manage the flow of my working life.
I thought I’d try a new feature this week where I publish a few notable memos. I hope to make this a regular feature of the newsletter and will try to get it out on Wednesday, technically ‘midweek’.
If you follow my Twitter feed, I usually respond in real time on that platform. But I know many of you don’t have a Twitter account or if you do, rarely use the medium (not a bad idea in 2020).
So here goes the mid-week mailbag.
First up, the tweets.
It’s important to make this distinction—there is a difference between disagreeing with something and being compliant. For instance, I might disagree with the speed limit, believing it should be higher than let’s say, 30 MPH, but that is the law. If I am not compliant, I am breaking the law. Good citizenry is acting in compliance to local laws (even if I may exceed that speed limit from time to time).
If there is one thing we have heard repeatedly during this pandemic, and more recently during the uptick of incidents, is to adhere to three guidelines: wear a mask, socially distance and wash your hands. If we do those three things, we will be OK. I happen to agree with these three guidelines as they are reasonable and are backed by rational objective data. If you read the packets of PDF’s from health organizations and condense the information into simple sailable steps, they are: wear a mask, socially distance and use hand sanitizer. I am both in agreement and in compliance (most of the time).
As for the IHSA and its handling of athletics during The Year of the Virus, I disagree with their non-actions and don’t believe they have been compliant with their mission as an organization. As I wrote this week, the IHSA has failed in its one purpose—maximizing participation opportunities for student-athletes in the state of Illinois. I understand we are in unprecedented times, but the fact we are approaching Halloween and are no farther along in knowing whether sports will be played this winter or spring is unacceptable. Rather than setting the course for basketball, wrestling and other indoor sports, they are sitting in their offices waiting for a phone call from the Governor’s office. It’s a failure of leadership. For those who feel differently, drop me a line at jon@jonjkerr.com.
All due respect to the players and coaches of the Elmwood-Brimfield football program, the team behind the above tweet, you are wrong about the IHSA. It is not doing all it can.
The ‘he’ this tweet is referencing is Gov. Pritzker. The tweet is referring to something Pritzker had done repeatedly in press conferences which is say Illinois’ situation with the virus is better than surrounding states. When he justified not allowing football to be played, he said ‘if other states want to endanger the lives of their citizens that is up to them.”
This is a classic case of soft shaming, where someone justifies their own decisions by pointing out the misdeeds of others. Pritzker wants to keep virus cases down in Illinois and up until this recent surge, he had succeeded. But at a huge cost.
He created a “Sports Guidance” document as sophisticated as pre-school finger painting workshop. The guidelines put such severe restrictions in place for athletics that it forced the cancellation of some sports (football) or allowed for loopholes that arguably put more people at risk (private teams playing without following public health measures). While other states operate under the leadership of athletic associations and individual school districts, Prtizker pulled a “Game of Thrones” power grab, snatching up oversight in an area previously monitored at the local and community level. People do not like politicians crapping where they eat and that’s what Pritzker has done with small college, high school and youth sports.
This is a great question as it applies to everyone and everything.
Professional sports teams have done remarkably well with their ‘bubble’ concept. The NBA had no hiccups. Baseball had a few missteps but got through them. The NFL is dealing with virus cases but are playing through. College football has had messy situations but just like the NFL, it is pushing forward. And they should. But the one thing those industries have is money and resources. Pro and college teams have spent millions on testing and bubble procedures.
Small college, high school and youth? They don’t have the resources the pros or the Power 5 conferences do. At least not yet. So how do they play on?
By following the guidelines. By being diligent with mask wearing, socially distancing and avoiding places where athletes congregate (no locker rooms, space out on buses, etc). High school and youth teams in Illinois have already been doing this for months. Have there been cases? I’m sure. But not the outbreaks you’d expect if teams were not following guidelines. I’ve written about the concept of subsidiarity in the newsletter. Trust local stakeholders to do right by their communities.
Run towards the challenges the virus presents and play on.
That’s it for tweets. Here’s highlights from your comments/emails (in bold typeface) from this week:
Governor Pritzker has done a great job. No we do not need indoor sports all these people saying scholarships it's all crap close everything and get rid of this pandemic we have an ass for a president that lies about the seriousness. Let's listen to scientists -article comment from R Lundquist
Forget the ‘saying scholarships it’s all crap’ portion. Let’s look at the ‘close everything and get rid of this pandemic’ section.
Here are graphics (courtesy of Johns Hopkins University and Medicine) of virus data from three states—Illinois, Texas and Florida. The graphs show numbers on daily new cases in the vertical column. Horizontal shows month/year.
First Illinois:
Next for Texas:
Then for Florida:
The number and date at the top of each graph shows the date when the peak of new cases occurred. As you can see, that peak happened in July in both Texas and Florida. Both those states have significantly higher populations than Illinois and more major cities. But those states are seeing fewer and fewer cases this fall with less government-imposed restrictions.
In spite of the belief of the commenter, it’s safe to conclude from these charts that lockdowns do not work.
What works is again, I repeat—making up in large gatherings, socially distancing and washing your hands. There is no rationale argument against those three basic actions. If everyone follows these reasonable guidelines and makes them part of their daily functions, we can all get on with it and not have to live in a world we often don’t recognize in 2020.
(Thanks to newsletter reader Brett for alerting me of the above graphics).
@will we have a basketball season? -everyone
Yes, I believe we will have a season. When it will start and in what form, that I can’t answer. But some encouraging news this week.
When asked about it Tuesday, Pritzker had this to say:
We are going to be very careful regarding any guidance issued for school sports for the winter...Illinois has done a better job than most states certainly those surrounding us and we'd like to keep it that way
As someone who has watched Pritzker numerous times at these press events, his words and tone represent a noticeable shift.
Rather than get defensive, spout anecdotes and voodoo science (“the spit and saliva…” blah, blah) as he did with football, he left the door open for basketball. The fact he used the word ‘guidance’ rather than ‘mandate’ is encouraging. The IHSA said earlier in the fall that it felt the basketball would not start until December. That may be a tentative target date. There should be more definitive word next week.
Stick to sports not politics, it isn’t going over well with a lot of people. -anonymous email
All due respect to the golfers, runners and tennis players, there’s not much sports to write about, is there?
Honestly, I don’t give a rip about what sits well with people. I care about writing about topics that are interesting to me and my audience. And right now, the virus is the story of our lives. I’ll continue to write about it for as long as we are touched by it and it impacts all of our daily lives. I suspect that will be for a long time.
@What is your favorite scene in Ferris Bueller?
#9Times
Do you have a question or comment for the mid-week mailbag? Send email to jon@jonjkerr.com.