It Means You Lose Your Rights

March 13, 2020. President Donald J. Trump made announcement in the Rose Garden that he is declaring a “National Emergency.”

The announcement came across TV's everywhere. Volunteers in an outpatient clinic asked what that meant. A cranky older doctor with an eastern European accent said, “It means you lose all of your rights.”

Over the next several months, the doctor’s words rang true. We lost the freedom to move about, not because of checkpoints, like the ones that once existed in the communist regimes of Europe, but because there was nowhere to go. Restaurants were closed. Shopping malls were closed. Gyms were closed. Parks were closed. Beaches were closed (sort of). The only places that were open were grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware stores, and big box stores that had any of those departments. Most people were sequestered at home, either furloughed or working from home.

But we adapted.

We ate differently. There was two-pronged effect on how we ate. Restaurants were shuttered, and grocery store shelves were bare. It felt apocalyptic—or least un-American. Memories of the pictures of communist-era bread lines came to mind, and people compared the situation to food rationing in North Korea. But innovation reigned.

A local Norm’s restaurant started selling grocery boxes with a package of eggs, a package of bacon, bread, potatoes, condiments, and four rolls of toilet paper. Toilet paper was a hot commodity. Shortly after that, restaurants everywhere were accepting take-out orders, and delivery services were proliferating.

We also cooked more. It was a way to fill the extra time we had. The extra time came from what we weren’t doing. We weren’t working, or we weren’t commuting. We weren’t shuttling our kids around to innumerable activities. We weren’t losing hours browsing at the mall. We weren’t filling our calendars with social gatherings.

Anyway, we cooked. We baked our own bread. Some people even went as far as to buy wheat berries and grind their own flour, because flour, or at the least the good flour, was not always readily available. Sourdough was popular because it did not require yeast. Some people resurrected old Depression-era recipes, like “Whacky Cake,” a chocolate cake that did not require milk, butter, or eggs, so those short-supply staples could be used for main meals. Everyone learned to stretch ingredients, use what they have, and pick up what they could when they could. My mom gave my dad and me a short list of items that she wanted us to pick up whenever we saw them. The list was pretty mundane: split peas, black-eyed peas, brown rice, and toilet paper.

We exercised differently. Gym facilities were dark, but there were murmurs about the need to keep exercising. Fitness streaming services and YouTube channels pushed out comprehensive, gym-free workouts. Gyms published at-home workouts on the members-only areas of their websites or apps, and trainers attempted to stay connected to their clients via social media. Let’s face it, a social-media presence was vital because we were all spending too much time on social media. We pushed for parks, beaches, and hiking trails to be opened as a venue for exercise. Some smaller gyms stayed open in violation of the closure orders. Occasionally, mainstream gyms were allowed to reopen, but they had strict limits on the number of people that could be in at one time, and they required everyone to wear gloves and masks and to carry around spray bottles of disinfectant to clean equipment before and after use. (Trying to clean a weight with full gloves on caused me to drop a 25-lb plate on my foot in March 2021).

We shopped differently. Online shopping was not a new phenomenon. We were already familiar with Cyber Monday—the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, when online sales surge the same way that in-store sales do on Black Friday. But there undoubtedly was a rise in online shopping. In addition to typical online purchases, like gifts, books, and novelty items, my household and others started ordering everyday basics, clothing, and even greeting cards.

We also saw the rise of curbside pickup—an innovative solution to allow the economic engine to run. It put people back to work, and it opened up some competition. Prior to the implementation of curbside pickup, you could shop at stores with certain essential products (i.e. grocery stores, hardware stores, pharmacies, big box stores that had groceries, hardware, or pharmacies, and convenience stores), or you buy from an online retailer, like Amazon. It wasn’t fair that you could run down to Walmart, but not Best Buy, to replace a faulty charging cable.

We went to church differently. Gathering with individuals outside of your immediate family was prohibited, so congregating for a church service or Bible study, was out of the question. Churches took to broadcasting their services live on YouTube or Facebook (or via their own self-hosted platforms). Under an argument that a regulation that prevents a church from gathering was a violation of the First Amendment protection of religious freedom (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”), churches fought back and started holding their services outside, while still broadcasting for those that weren’t there in person.

Entertainers also took to the use of live broadcasts; some even patched in band members from their own home studios. A band that I particularly enjoyed at that time did a live broadcast every Tuesday afternoon. It was just a couple of songs, but it was a great way to keep connected to their fans.

We groomed differently. We did not turn into ungroomed swamp creatures. But because the salons were closed, we took to coloring our own hair (yes, from boxed color) or leaving it uncolored, and we cut it ourselves. I can only imagine some of the stories shared among hairstylists when the salons reopened, and they were called upon to fix lockdown hairstyles.

We Zoomed. Zoom offered a level of flexibility that its video-conferencing predecessors did not. As a result, it became a star of the pandemic and was used for school, business, public meetings, and family chats, alike. While there are questions and criticism about how school on Zoom turned out, it was an answer to a question we never expected to have. For business use, it simplified video calls.

Prior to the pandemic, business video calls were rare and primarily done on Skype, but Zoom did not require meeting participants to be “connected” as contacts in its system, and it allowed for both public and private meetings by use of passcodes and waiting rooms. The tech-averse (aka my mom) became proficient in the use of Zoom. In addition, city councils, water districts, county boards, and courts took to the platforms to hold their proceedings without having to gather people into the same physical space.

We got contentious. We fought…about everything—everything from Tiger King to Jeffrey Epstein, George Floyd, the electoral process, and whether the measures being taken to head off the pandemic were effective or appropriate. Even the debate about whether the dress was white & gold or blue & black resurfaced.

Where are we today?

During the pandemic, we were at war with the COVID-19 virus. Because of the elusiveness of the enemy, there is no amnesty date, no treaty, no end. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 has taken the lives of over 1.2 million Americans (as of January 21, 2025). I know that loss. I had two aunts that died from COVID-19.

While we will now forever fight COVID-19, the reduced severity, has allowed a return to normalcy. But changes—innovations—that arose following the March 13, 2020 emergency declaration remain.

Restaurants have reopened to dine-in guests, but take-out orders and delivery services have become ubiquitous.

At-home and streaming workouts remain popular. Gyms are open, but they are having to rely on fancy spa equipment and access to premium home workouts to drew new members.

Curbside pickup is everywhere. Stores have designated parking spaces for pickup—and based on what I see at my local Target, Walmart, and drug stores, it’s as popular as ever.

Churches continue to broadcast their services. I volunteer in the sound ministry at my church, and making sure things are right for an effective broadcast is part of our mission.

We have gone back to getting our hair professionally groomed, but I see a lot of gray hair that used to be dyed.

Zoom is here to stay. The kids have gone back to school. Public agencies are split on whether their meetings are remote, in-person, or hybrid. Recovery groups, like Narcotics Anonymous, have found it to be useful tool to reach others that are in recovery or needing a meeting. The group is worldwide, and 24 hours a day, an online or hybrid meeting can be found, giving addicts more opportunities than ever before to connect with like-minded individuals who can help them in their recovery.

Zoom continues to be a standard in business. While some use of “Zoom” may be the start of genericide (i.e. referring to all video conferencing by the Zoom brand name), video conferencing has changed the way we do business—namely video conferencing has displaced in many person meetings.

We have changed the way we work. Prior to the pandemic, we went somewhere to work (an office, a shop, a factory, a warehouse, etc), and we then went home. The pandemic gave us both a great experiment demonstrating the success of remote work and the rise of the gig economy. Remote work means you have an employer, but you work offsite, usually from home. In some cases, jobs are now hybrid, meaning they see value in bringing the team together into the office, but they also understand the burden of doing that every day, so you work some days on-site and some days from home. The gig economy refers to that employment sector where the workers are considered “independent contractors,” and includes Uber drivers, Door Dashers, and the myriad of jobs that can be considered “freelance.” With the rise in the use of delivery services and hustles that many people started as extra (or replacement) income during the pandemic have continued.

We’re still contentious…about everything.

…And the dress is white and gold.