Someone or some group has placed 20,000 tiny American flags in front of the Washington Monument, each representing 10 Americans dead of the coronavirus.
A man in Texas has placed a tiny orange flag in his yard, one for each dead Texan. He is going to have to ask a neighbor to lend a yard because he is running out of space in his.
Someone has suggested we plant a tree for each dead American. How many acres or square miles would we have to buy or set aside for a number that could rise from the 200,000 dead today to the 300,000 or 500,000? Reliable estimate is 400,000 by January 1, 2021.
That seems too overwhelming. Perhaps we could instead honor our dead – the mothers, the fathers, the grandparents, aunt, uncles, brothers, sisters – in each state with a tree. The 3,286 in North Carolina would still be sizeable grove.
Perhaps we could go even smaller, more intimate and honor those dead in each county. We could give every oak or maple the name of someone who lived near us, maybe even just down the street.
Perhaps you have a better idea about honoring our COVID-19 dead. Make sure you have enough space.
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