If I Were The President’s Speech Writer This Is What I’d Write

Nearly 80 years have passed since the time when Americans were called to mobilize against a threat to our society.

A generation of Americans both deployed and at home sacrificed deeply to stop the axis threat in Europe and the Pacific.

As a result of their willingness to defend our way of life, even in the face of great risk, the world experienced nearly a century of unparalleled progress. We built planes to cross oceans in mere hours, landed men on the moon, cured diseases and connected the world via the internet.

Our way of life today would appear as magic or fantasy to Americans just a century ago.

These wondrous improvements to human life are the fruits of our society. However, that society relies on a sophisticated, interconnected and fragile economy. The COVID-19 virus threatens America not only with the virus in the body, but also the fear in our minds.

The virus may sicken or kill us but the fear — the fear will, without question, will break us. The cost of fear will be a generation of lost livelihoods, lost lives and lost progress in all domains of human life.

At the core, our American way of life depends on the willingness of men and women to get up every morning and serve their fellow Americans by way of their occupation.

Many of these occupations require great risk even in tranquil times.

Utility lineman work 50 feet in the air around high voltage power lines. Police pursue armed criminals. Nurses are exposed to dangerous pathogens. Roughnecks stand atop volatile oil derricks. Construction workers weld rebar 40 stories above the streets. Truck drivers navigate icy roads.

These are the unheralded risks required to keep civilization breathing.

Now, for the first time in many decades, COVID-19 is requiring every American worker to weigh the risk required to maintain our society. The CEO and the store clerk now share in the danger of keeping America functional.

Effectively, all Americans must answer a simple but difficult question: “Am I willing to risk contracting COVID-19 in order to secure the blessings of American society for myself and future generations?”

For the sick and the elderly, these risks are high and we must assemble the resources to protect them until a vaccination may be found. Protecting these Americans will require financial assistance. Those who work may go many months without the embrace of elderly or sick loved ones to protect them from exposure.

For the healthy, they must decide if they are willing to assume the risk of COVID-19 to save our nation and perhaps the world from an economic and human catastrophe worse than the Great Depression.

If history is our guide, then we know the answer is yes.

Tonight, I’m asking all Americans to undertake a two-week quarantine to give us the chance to control the spread, scale up the capacity of our healthcare system and sufficiently test a scientific sample of the American population for COVID-19.

After this time, we will publish hospitalization, recovery and mortality rates for all to see and these numbers will be updated weekly.

My hope is that these comprehensive datasets show mortality rates under 0.5 percent and hospitalization rates under 8 percent. The actual numbers may be better and they may be worse but at least we will know the risk.

After this two-week period, ending on Monday, April 6th, America needs those willing and able to keep society moving to wake up, get dressed and return to work. Domestic travel and meetings and work will resume by mid-summer with increased sanitary safeguards like avoiding handshakes and routine hand washing.

At 11am on April 6th, I’m also requesting all media including social media platforms to broadcast a ceremony live from the National Mall where they will be led in a reading of the Pledge of Allegiance, the singing of our National Anthem and the official reopening of the Mall.

We will recognize April 6th of each year as “Reopening Day” and use it as a day to reflect on the blessings on civil society and the sacrifices we make to preserve it.

There is no doubt that America will pay a price for protecting our way of life. Many Americans will become ill. Many Americans may die. At times, the pain and cost of the disease may make us question the value of the sacrifice.

In 1917, Americans fought a World War and a deadly pandemic of Spanish Flu. Millions died around the world and in many towns across America, there are shared or unmarked graves for those who perished.

We stand here today only because that generation gifted us with their will and perseverance. Only in a time like this can we fully appreciate the debt of gratitude we owe those Americans for their courage to keep the country moving forward.

It is my prayer, that in 100 years, our children’s children may remember and reflect on the sacrifices we make this year with pride and humility.

I pray they know that because we chose today to bravely bear the burden of COVID-19 that their world is free, prosperous and healthy.

Let us not retreat into the silent isolation of our homes and see our nation fade in fear but let us go courageously into the sunlit afternoon and continue the great work of this greatest nation.

Good night and may God bless these United States of America.