PUBLIC DECORUM AND PERSONAL FREEDOM

Benito Mussolini

COVID 19 has had its upside in my part of Lockdown World. I know this may sound sarcastic, coming from me. Let me explain.

I live on a comparatively busy street. It connects The Massachusetts Turnpike to cities to our north. A sprinkling of construction companies and moving companies adds to the traffic. The rumble of a dump truck is normal. The bass of a passing car stereo is less normal, but more annoying. In routine times, a certain amount of pollution from our air settles on patio furniture. Winter snow goes from white to gray rather quickly.

Normal nights were punctuated by a surge of traffic when the several local taverns closed. Local restaurants were popular. This meant people parked along our street in the evening to dine. The arriving diners were a quiet lot. The leaving diners, after several cocktails and heavy gourmet meals, were audible as they entered their cars.

The lockdown has changed my environment drastically for the better. My life is quieter. My air is cleaner. My neighborhood is suddenly peopled by a constant parade of recreational pedestrians who walk quietly by or nod a friendly nod if I am outside cleaning up my flower bed. 

This drastic change in public behavior has been wonderful. My only regret is the cost in personal security and freedom. Even then, I can rationalize that the average person may well have felt too secure previously in this safety-first society. And abuse of personal freedom often entailed obnoxious public behaviors. The most egregious example being the endless blasts of small fireworks late into summer nights. 

A subtle example of the intersection between personal freedom and public responsibility is the suburban backyard fire pit. This morning I read yet another post on our regional message board by a troglodyte who was congratulating his neighbors on burning fires in their yards because it reminded him of his childhood. Many cities and towns have banned wood fires because they are more polluting than oil heating systems. The particulates from these fires travel afar on the breeze. They can enter open windows of neighboring homes. They can trigger any number of respiratory conditions. 

I responded to the message board post with respiratory health information. I am expecting the predictable abuse in response. Mind you, this same troglodyte may well report his neighbors for not wearing face masks at the local liquor store. 

The extreme, and perhaps unwarranted, COVID19 panic response by governments could have created a renewed awareness of shared citizenship in my world. That is the most good I can squeeze out of it, frankly. 

As a senior person, I know the government approach has been negligent of nursing homes and group living situations for seniors. Worse even than that, as a nurse, I know that taking that approach as a primary action would have prevented some of the restrictive measures that have crashed our whole national economy. 

Public decorum has been sorely neglected as part of elementary education for too long. Public decorum has become class-specific. Those who have benefited from private education due to economic advantage display better public decorum than those who have attended the average public school here in the US. Those who grow up in economically wealthier neighborhoods with more space around dwellings and more groomed public facilities are more likely to display more civilized public behavior. 

If the response to COVID19 can generalized public decorum, I can take some comfort in living with its downside. I know this in itself can be a dangerous attitude. Benito Mussolini was lauded by middle-class Italians for bring order and safety to the streets of Italian cities and towns. He famously made Italian trains run on time. 

It is up to each of us to keep the conversation about public decorum and personal freedom alive. The only effective way to do that, without imposition of some form of martial law, is to speak up, and listen, to our neighbors and fellow citizens when public decorum or the responsible exercise of personal freedom is violated.