Story in Pictures

This Day in Illustration

A snapshot from my place in the world; presented in pictures and words

Welcome to May 6, 2020. There is a lot going on in the world today, and here is my version of keeping you up to date on some of the goings-on plus some local (to Washington State, U. S.) stories of interest.

I took some time to sketch out a few of the things that are on my personal radar today. I have been wanting to use more illustrations with my articles, so today I slowed down just a bit and made the illustration the focus and built the story from that, instead of the other way around as I usually do.

First and foremost, according to Alexa, today is National Nurses Day. I don’t know who comes up with the days and why it is “National” rather than International, but as far as I am concerned, this should be of universal note.

It is a good time for all of us to take a moment and send a virtual hug or air high five to those nurses, doctors, and first responders that are on the front lines each day as we deal with a viral pandemic.

But not only that, as this extremely somber article in the New York Times explains, there are many that are engaged in the battle against the Coronavirus that are perhaps unnoticed, but nevertheless are just as at risk, or perhaps more so, than their colleagues in the limelight.

So also take a little time to either overtly or silently acknowledge all of the people behind the scenes in hospitals, pharmacies, grocery stores and so forth that are keeping us all going during some interesting and trying times.

In some Coronavirus related news, the Sheriff here where I live in Snohomish County, Washington is under fire for comments he made on his personal (but public facing and well-followed) Facebook page. It seems Sheriff Adam Fortney, elected only last fall, has made a public stand opposing the stay at home orders issued by Washington Governor Jay Inslee and declared that, as the lead law-enforcement official in the county (of 750,000 residents), would not be upholding or enforcing the Governor’s directives.

While Fortney is supported by a group of “You can’t tell me what to do, this is ‘Merica” patriots, he is now facing the potential of a recall vote. The recall measure was initiated by a group of citizens that find significant issue with a lawmaker that is essentially encouraging people to selectively follow only the laws they happen to believe in.

One of Fortney’s first moves after being elected was to lay off the sheriff office’s long-time Public Information Officer and instead has opted to manage his own traditional and social media statements. I am not sure that is working out so well for Sheriff Fortney.

In what, to many, seems like what must be the next iteration in a series of unfortunate and disastrous events surrounding 2020 so far, “Murder Hornets” have been discovered in the United States.

The murder hornet is larger in size than those native to the U. S. and is so nicknamed because of their tendency to invade honeybee hives and decimate the population, decapitating the adult bees and stealing the larvae to feed to their own offspring.

However, the Asian Giant Hornet, as it is officially named, is actually less dangerous to humans than traditional honeybees as the number of people that die each year from their stings number only about 40 annually compared to nearly twice that many from honeybee stings.

While the Asian giant hornet’s sting is said to be significantly more painful, it delivers less of a venomous punch than some other flying insects. Unfortunately for those of us in Washington State, however, the rainy forested areas in our region closely mimic those of the Asian hornet’s natural habitat.

To get more up to speed on the Asian giant hornet and the actual threat it may pose, you can check out this Smithsonian Magazine article.

Meanwhile, in more “how much worse can 2020 get?” happenings, the happy coincidence of a Cinco de Mayo and Taco Tuesday intersection was dampened by stay at home orders throughout the U. S., limiting people’s celebrations to a much smaller scale.

For those not in the U. S., Cinco de Mayo is a uniquely American “holiday”, generally (but falsely) thought to be a day of significance in Mexico that is feted by drinking margaritas and Mexican beer and gorging on “traditional” Mexican fare like nachos and queso dip.

“Taco Tuesday” is our acceptance of the fact that we just can’t settle on only one day of the year for our mexican-inspired dining, and how we keep ourselves in drinking shape for the big day each May.

In spite of the Coronavirus (see the irony in this whole scenario?) keeping folks at home, I am sure there are still a few people looking for the aspirin and trying to rehydrate this morning.

And finally, in spite of still being on the upswing of the curve of new Coronavirus cases in the U. S., pressure to re-start the economy along with the fact that certain regions are experiencing disproportionately lower cases of the disease, some areas are slowly starting to lift existing stay at home orders.

States like Alabama and Florida are opening beaches to the public with restrictions on social distancing still in place, and here in Washington individual outdoor sporting activities such as hunting and fishing have been allowed.

People have slowly started to emerge from their homes and seem to be venturing out more. The jury is still out on what effect that will have. Hopefully it will be positive.

Thanks for reading! As I mentioned this was driven first by my desire to use more illustrations. In this case I think most of the panels turned out pretty good until the final one in the bottom right corner.

I was trying to show someone looking out a door through binoculars and it just got all screwed up. So, then I fell into the trap of drawing a whole person, which I wasn’t planning at all.

Oh well. Drawing and writing have a lot of similarities. Once you screw enough stuff up, you eventually learn from your mistakes and get better!

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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.