A month after I delivered my State of the State address and cast a vision for 2020, tornadoes left a path of destruction across six counties and stole the lives of 25 Tennesseans.
Two days later, a global pandemic officially entered our state with the first confirmed case of COVID-19.
The promises of another year were quickly benched as March delivered one punch after another for hardworking Tennesseans.
There’s no doubt we are living through an unusual chapter in Tennessee history and also turning an uncertain page in American history. But I’d like to think that in Tennessee we’re instead taking a page out of an old hymnal: With courage, we Tennesseans will journey on, because the storms of destruction and sickness will pass over.
The tornadoes wreaked havoc on urban and rural communities alike in the wee hours of the morning. Yet the courage of Tennesseans showed up well before first light, from first responders working through wind and rain, to neighbors climbing through rubble to account for each other.
A Tuesday tornado couldn’t stop members of Mt. Bethel Missionary Baptist Church from pulling together Sunday services in hard-hit North Nashville, with communities from Benton to Putnam County showing similar acts of faithful defiance in the midst of destruction.
While COVID-19 doesn’t bring with it the shocking displays of collapsed homes and obliterated businesses, it has caused normal life to screech to a halt in all of our communities.
Tight-knit Tennesseans must now “do their part by staying apart” as we work feverishly to mitigate the spread of an invisible disease affecting people across the globe.
But again, Tennesseans are responding with a groundswell of courage. Our health care workers are putting their own lives at risk to care for Tennesseans who have fallen ill.
In true Tennessee fashion, we aren’t just treating COVID-19, we are leading innovations to understand this disease with the power of Oak Ridge National Laboratory supercomputing.
Just down I-40 scientists at Vanderbilt are exploring antibodies against COVID-19, while Dr. Colleen Jonsson and her University of Tennessee Health Systems colleagues are testing drugs against it in Memphis.
Courage showed up in the Tennessee General Assembly as lawmakers shelved politics to quickly pass a budget for the good of our physical safety and economy in the wake of COVID-19. Courage is also alive and well within the Tennessee business community as companies embrace alternative business models to keep customers safe.
‘The urgency of COVID-19 is real’
Our administration has been flooded with offers from Tennessee-based manufacturers who have heard our urgent calls for personal protective equipment and are willing to switch production to make lifesaving masks, gowns, gloves and respirators.
Courage has also shown up in the aisles of our grocery stores as essential employees work tirelessly so shelves and stomachs are full. Nonprofit organizations and churches are stepping up to offer everything from childcare to financial support for the unemployed.
The urgency of COVID-19 is real, and it’s going to require every single Tennessean to step up in the fight. Routines must change and habits like social distancing and increased handwashing are all basic actions that we can easily embrace to be personally responsible in stopping the spread of the virus.
I am asking Tennesseans, especially those under 40, to join this fight because lives and livelihoods depend on the swift defeat of COVID-19.
Uncertain times don’t mean uncertain people, and Tennesseans continue to demonstrate that neither destruction nor disease will change who we are.
Tennessee has weathered the March of the century, but the storm is passing over — and as Psalm 71 says, “I will always have hope.”
This is a reprint of an opinion piece in THE TENNESSEAN – 03-29-2020
