Patience and Time
Lately, I keep thinking about March 11. Or, more accurately, I keep thinking about an hourlong stretch on the evening of March 11. That evening, a couple of very important things happened in almost one fell swoop: both Tom Hanks and Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert revealed that they had tested positive for the coronavirus. What this accomplished, primarily, is that it made enough people across this country realize one thing.
So this coronavirus thing is real.
It shouldn’t take that kind of thing to make people appreciate the severity of a pandemic, but such is this strange life. When pop-culture figures reveal they’re sick, then the tabloid headline becomes true and we realize that, shit, celebrities really are like us.
I wonder if this is another one of those moments.
Disneyland won’t be open on July 17, which isn’t just the original reopening date, but the anniversary of the first day when the park opened its doors in 1955. It’s a big deal, and the kind of big deal that may make people nationwide accept that what’s happening in states like California, Texas, Florida, and my home state of Arizona isn’t a second wave of the pandemic. It’s the first wave hitting states that didn’t get it quite so bad back in March.
We can wonder — since I doubt there will be any further official information aside from the tweet above — exactly what prompted the second delay at Disneyland. Yes, it’s true — California Governor Gavin Newsom had never signed off on the July 17 date, though there was enough reason to presume he would. A very big twist occurred earlier this week, though, when a large union representing Disneyland Cast Members sent a letter to Newsom all but begging him to delay the opening, because they felt — quite rightly — that a reopening now is simply not safe. We shouldn’t discount the reality that the union’s voice was heard.
And we also shouldn’t discount the very real possibility that this delay is going to inspire other delays. Earlier today, there was a story floating around in a few different trades that Disney is considering postponing the release of Mulan on July 24. Leaving aside the hesitation inherent in that phrasing, Disney should only consider that the United States had its worst single day of coronavirus cases today. Cases are going up in large states. New York is apparently not even going to open its movie theaters anytime soon. What is there to consider?
Disneyland isn’t opening on July 17. We can debate why, and we can debate when the new reopening happens, if it’s happening the right way. But one of the symbols of this country will stay closed through its anniversary, which no one at the company would have wanted.
We’re still in the first wave of the pandemic. I think corporations like Disney are beginning to accept that. (They should’ve already done so.) The dominoes continue to fall.