Blog Post #12

I am from a small town in Massachusetts known as Marblehead. It is the type of town where everyone knows everyone and you are always guaranteed to run into someone you know if you are walking or going to our local community store. It is located right on the water which makes it super fun for the summer when we can go swimming, not so much right now. Anyways, there is a small island off the mainland that is connected by a causeway- an area of Marblehead known as "The Neck". On one side of the causeway is the Marblehead harbor and on the other side of the causeway is the open ocean. People in town absolutely LOVE to go for walks along the causeway with their friends, family, or dogs. I personally love to run on the causeway because you get an amazing view of the water and the beach, and someone I know driving across the causeway will always honk at me to keep me motivated. During quarantine, walking across the causeway has been a daily activity for almost everyone in town. It has been keeping a lot of people sane I think. However, I have also never seen the causeway so busy before. There are easily at least 20 or more people walking across the causeway at a time, to the point where I always end up having to step off the sidewalk and onto the street to get around everyone. The busyness of the causeway has caused quite a stir in town, as people are freaking out about social distancing. When I go for runs, I get some dirty looks from people walking outside sometimes, and I really don't understand why. If they are so concerned about contracting corona, they could take preventative measures such as wearing a face mask, walking on the other side of the causeway, or maybe not walk in the busiest place of the town. Eventually, I think people's complaints got worse because my town has officially put the causeway on lockdown. No one can walk across the causeway, and they have volunteer monitors to enforce the new rule. I personally think this is a bit absurd. We are now being limited to where we can walk and exercise. It especially sucks for the people who live on the neck who normally do their daily walks or exercises on the causeway. I understand that corona is a serious disease and spreading at a rapid rate and social distancing should be our best friend, but I think this has gone a bit too far. My family and I love to go for walks with our dog down the causeway because of the view. Following the closing of the causeway, a few other popular places in my town have shut down like our lighthouse. Which is a beautiful place to have a picnic or watch the sunset. I am nervous that soon more and more public places will be closing down. I don't know, maybe this is what the town should be doing, but if they are so concerned with containing the spread and enforcing social distancing, I think another smart idea would be to close the beaches. But, they have not. This is kind of me just ranting but I just wanted to get my thoughts out about this. I thought it was interesting.