We've Been Here Before -- and We'll Meet Again

Man I love The Bowery Boys! The only good thing about this COVID-19 situation is that they have been dropping lots of great episodes of their podcast lately, including their newest one -- The Staten Island Quarantine War. It is a must listen and a must read (their web page for this episode includes lots of great pictures and info behind this big "war").

Who would have thought that something that happened more than 160 years ago on Staten Island of all places would be so relevant today?

Long story short: there used to be a big quarantine hospital on the northern St. George's tip of Staten Island that the residents hated, petitioned against, rioted against, and eventually burned down, in 1858. When you see all these people protesting against quarantine orders today, it's both depressing but also somehow historically satisfying to know that we've been here before, this is actually nothing new.

People hate quarantines -- whether it's something they are forced to live in or with. Being quarantined is barbaric. It's like being in jail or dealing with kids confined to their rooms -- it totally goes against the human spirit that years for freedom. But sometimes, both for the people being quarantined and for the greater good, it's necessary. 

But learning about this moment in NYC history, you learn that pandemics and quarantines -- like wars, depressions, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, etc. -- or any great events that traumatize an entire populace, are not a new experience in human history. 

To paraphrase the end of the first chapter of Brideshead Revisited, we've been here before, we know all about it -- and some day it will end. To quote Queen Elizabeth II's recent remarks about COVID-19, reminding us more than 80 years after she comforted her fellow children during World War II, "we'll meet again."