from Facebook:Courtney Thomas
H/t Rev. Heidi Carrington Heath
I'm sharing this with a HEAVY content warning. This is a first-hand account from our friend Julie Schwietert Collazo who lives in NYC. Julie is a reliable narrator, and a journalist. She's also the founder of Immigrant Families Together. I want to encourage those of us outside of NYC to read this carefully to understand how bad it truly is.

Today, I went out for the first time since March 11. I left home, in my car, to deliver items to friends, wearing my mask and gloves, leaving items on their porches or in their lobbies and crossing my arms over my che

There are things that happened today that I want to share because I want you to really understand what it's like here right now and, especially if you *don't* live in NYC, to please, please PLEASE act now to shelter in place because your local governments aren't going to make adequate decisions about this until it's too late, if at all. Please don't believe that anyone or any entity is coming to save you. They're not. You are on your own, with your community, and it's up to you to decide how you're going to respond, together.

(1) We drove on FDR and passed Bellevue Hospital. I drove past there every day after 9/11 on my way to my MSW program. The backlot is FULL of 18 wheelers, which are full of cadavers. THE LOT IS FULL. It was NOT full after 9/11, not even in the months that followed, as parts of bodies were recovered and processed.

(2) One of my dearest friends is nursing her partner at home and hasn't been able to access adequate supplies. She finally managed to snag a delivery window today for some necessary healthcare items. Amazon Prime told her they'd delivered to her door. They hadn't -- they delivered to her lobby. She went downstairs right away to pick up her bags...and found them being pilfered by neighbors.

(3) A friend messaged today to ask if I had any ideas about how to deal with an impossible situation. A friend of theirs had died in an apartment in Queens, where I live. There are children in the apartment. The police came and didn't know what to do with the body. They had NO advice for the family. All the funeral homes are full. I immediately called the medical examiner's office (voice mail) and funeral homes (answering services: They are all already full). Let this sink in: a dead and decomposing body is in an apartment home, in NYC, with young children, and no one knows what to do. (4) I texted tonight to check in on friends, both of whom are symptomatic and have been for the past week. I check in on them daily. The person who responded was... one of their children.

(5) In New York, one person is dying every 2 minutes. Officials announced today that we may start burying our dead in city parks.

I saw FAR too many people in parks today, running, biking, exercising, and playing soccer, baseball, and close contact sports as if nothing is going on. What is it going to take for you to fucking get that this is a full-blown fucking crisis?