Women's Watch: Change is the name of the game today

Sunday, Aug. 2, we saw an example of how great we can be when we work together. A team of people ­— of different races, religions, ethnic origins and genders — came together and worked as a team to send two men to the International Space Station and bring them back safely.

They did it by cooperating. The two men who got into that space capsule trusted their lives to that team, and the team didn’t let them down.

We can do great things, too. Our challenges are different. We face the threat of a disease where we must cooperate in order to stop its spread. We face working conditions and living conditions that demand social distancing in order to stop that spread. And so we must cooperate to make it happen. That’s today’s goal.

The good news is that we have the technology to make it possible for each member of an orchestra to play his or her instrument at home and then share it together, so it can be heard as a concert. We see television programs adapt with split screens and people conversing with others from home or outside from all over the globe. It can be done.

So each of us is challenged to meet our goals of working, going to school and meeting our everyday needs for groceries and going to doctors in new ways. We must even marry, bury and give birth under different circumstances. And yet, we’re figuring it out by cooperating with one another. Doctors now give phone appointments to determine if a patient should go to the hospital, grocery stores have created one-way aisles to help people social distance, funerals are not being done in groups, but family members share their grief online and by phone, as funeral homes take over the responsibility of caring for the remains. Weddings and funerals, graduations and celebrations of all kinds are put on hold until we can stop the spread of the crippling disease we face as a planet.

Older citizens are learning new things like how to use computers and see their loved ones online by using programs such as Zoom, Skype and Facetime. People share their photographs online or by telephone now, rather than by paper photographs. Business is being transacted by taking a picture of a document on a phone and sending the picture to another business or by faxing, photocopying or using other technological methods. We’ve adapted quickly, by force, due to the spreading disease. But we’re cooperating with one another and getting it done.

The workplace for many has changed as well. Working from home has proven it can be beneficial for both the worker and the employer. Workers, especially women who were unable to join the workforce, can stay home with their children, saving money for child care, transportation and even dress codes. Hours are set by the worker in many cases as well. Employers find that they don’t have to pay employees for sick days, utilities and upkeep for a brick-and-mortar building space and office furniture.

Schools are a different thing altogether. We’ve found children who attend day care and early childhood classes raise their IQ scores and learn to cooperate better than those who are kept from school until later in their lives. Social skills can only be learned by having social opportunities, which is part of being in a traditional school setting. Team sports teach teamwork and give children the physical activity that is needed for both physical and mental growth. And yet we are now in a situation where that must be put on hold until we overcome the spread of a pandemic.

The good news is that like the team that sent two men to the International Space Station, we can work together, too. As individuals, we can wear masks, social distance and respect one another’s space if we must go to a job that’s considered essential to the functioning of the community.

Eventually, if we all pull together as a team, we can slow the spread of the disease, health care workers can help the few who get sick, and scientists can develop the medicine we need to overcome the disease.

Perhaps the pandemic has shown us how important pulling together is to achieve a common goal. It could even be that we shun those who sow discord and instead prefer those who cooperate.

We might even learn to cooperate on an international level, like the awe-inspiring International Space Station, rather than believing that we must compete with everyone. We could even work together to solve the problems of human pollution.

We know things have changed. The important question is how we change.

Women’s Watch is a cooperative writing effort of the local chapters of the American Association of University Women, the League of Women Voters and the National Organization for Women. This piece was authored by Lorie Lux.