MINOT, N.D. — Despite what you may have heard, this is not the new normal.

As this dark cloud of agoraphobia descends on our communities, we’re all reading and viewing a lot of content telling us that our lives have been forever changed.

They haven’t.

Not really.

We are a pampered people. Cynicism about America may be en vogue in 2020, but it’s a cynicism born of plenty. We have time to complain because, on any typical day, the grocery store down the street is packed full of food. Our garbage is picked up from our curbs reliably. Clean water is plentiful, and the sewers reliably whisk our waste out of sight.

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