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Editorial: Coronavirus enables a less tribal, more ingenious America. Let’s not backslide.

Staff photo by Robin Rudd / From left musician Jim Palmour gives a thumbs up as Ben Van Winkle plays the cello. Residents of the Fort Wood Historic District took to their porches recently to share their talents as a way to ward off tension prompted by coronavirus concerns.
Staff photo by Robin Rudd / From left musician Jim Palmour gives a thumbs up as Ben Van Winkle plays the cello. Residents of the Fort Wood Historic District took to their porches recently to share their talents as a way to ward off tension prompted by coronavirus concerns. Staff photo by Robin Rudd / From left musician Jim Palmour gives a thumbs up as Ben Van Winkle plays the cello. Residents of the Fort Wood Historic District took to their porches recently to share their talents as a way to ward off tension prompted by coronavirus concerns.

By The Chicago Tribune editorial board / Tribune News Service 4 min read

Once again humanity is humbled, this time not by fire, earthquake or tornado. Instead a wee creature our naked eye cannot see commandeers the Earth – yet another reminder that many forces dwarf us cocky-to-a-fault mortals.

For most of us, the less than draconian demand is that we stay secluded – incarcerated at home with our loved ones.

Meanwhile the contagion, as if with a mind of its own, searches for fresh human hosts. For those among us who contract the disease COVID-19, as we see in daily news coverage, the effects range from discomfort to oxygen starvation to harrowing death.

Whatever our individual fates as this ghastly pandemic unspools, each of us can find solace in the ways that millions of Americans are responding. Concern people are showing for one another is evident and, we hope, long lasting.

There always will be outliers – arrogant me-firsters who refuse to conform to new rules. And the criminals who strafe our streets shall always be with us. Our focus instead is on the vast majority of citizens abruptly awakened to the urgent needs of the less fortunate souls around them.