(Yes, I recognize it’s meant to be “lockdown”, but man I really needed a bad pun in my day)
I had a different post scheduled to go live today, and it was an overall piece on state of the world and how I didn’t want to see people losing hope due to this crisis right now, but I decided this piece needed to go live first, due to some extra news that came out today. The other piece will go live on Friday.
I know we are ALL going through a very challenging time right now. We’re all being asked to socially distance ourselves and to remain in isolation in our homes if we are able. I know many people are struggling with this, and for those of us who know people who are unable to stay in their houses, there’s added fears of what someone could bring home. I am not going to say that what we’re dealing with here is easy.
But it becomes more frustrating when you’re doing what you can to follow these guidelines to see others who are disregarding them. I’ve been seeing a lot on social media about people who are trying to go to the Highlands to socially isolate themselves, flooding an area of Scotland that is not normally heavily populated.
I don’t know if these are people who have a second home there and feel it’s a better place to isolate themselves, or who felt that staying home and isolating wasn’t fun so they decided to make this a vacation, or if they really just aren’t realizing the severity of the situation, but it’s very frustrating to read about.
And after reading this piece in the Spectator, where someone openly says they want to boycott the Highlands after this isolation period is over due to the statements coming from MSP Kate Forbes, who has openly said that people need to stay away from the Highlands right now, I really felt the need to write about this.
In reading the reasons why this person feels the need to boycott the Highlands, I feel it’s a massive misunderstanding of why people need to stay out of the Highlands during this epidemic.
People need to stay out of the Highlands—and not run there to isolate themselves—because if the Highlands break out with this epidemic, they do not have the resources to be treating the virus.
The Highlands is vast and spaced out, so isolating might be easy, but if someone brings that virus and it spreads, those communities and people are in danger.
The Highlands do not have the hospitals, facilities, or equipment to manage a massive outbreak in this virus. That is why people are not welcome in the Highlands right now.
So for anyone to say “I want to go to the Highlands to wait out isolation”, that is selfish. In doing that, you risk the health and very lives of people who live there every day.
One day, this isolation period will change; this will not be the norm forever. Don’t let what the world is now lead you to resentment of others or of places. People are being turned away from the Highlands, not because the Highlands are inhospitable or filled with cold, callous people, but because they are not equipped to handle an outbreak of this virus, and people flooded that area brings risk to each and every one of those lives there.
We’re in a place in the world where we are sincerely being asked to consider others just as much as ourselves, so please do that.
