PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

The headline in this blog captures the impossible choice all of us – both governments and individuals – face these days in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is not an exaggeration to label it as a choice between “life and livelihood.”

It also is not an exaggeration to label it as impossible. Impossible in the sense that there is no definitive right answer.

That’s why I tend to give many forthright government individuals a bit of room to make and announce their decisions.

I say “forthright government officials,” a phrase that excludes Donald Trump, the make-believe president who cannot see past his own nose as he faces a major challenge to his presidency.

If I were to be cast in a role to help make the “live and livelihood decision” for Oregon, I’d come down on the side of preserving life.

But I’d also know that it’s not that simple. I’d also reckon with the fact that “preserving life” also means preserving the way to earn a livelihood because, if that’s gone, there will be huge health and mental health ravages.

Here is the way columnist Peggy Noonan put it in this morning’s Wall Street Journal:

“But the economic contraction will have repercussions as destructive as the virus itself. People will die and sicken because of lost jobs, lost income and a feeling of no opportunity, no possibility.

“Alcoholism, drug abuse, anxiety, suicide, strife within families—all these things will follow. And there’s a feeling of terrible generational injustice. My generation is on pause, but the young are on stall, and it’s no good for them. People need to operate in the world to become themselves.”

The New York Times painted the challenge this way, putting the issue in individual, not just collective, terms:

“As states begin to loosen restrictions, the act of re-opening will be carried out, not by governors or the president, but the millions of individuals being asked to do it.

“When Maine finally announced this week that hair salons could reopen, a stylist in Lewiston, stayed up late wondering what to do, feeling overwhelmed.

“The virus still scared her. It seemed too soon to open up. Then again, her bills had not stopped and her unemployment benefits had not started, and she was starting to worry about next month’s rent.

“Around midnight on Thursday, she finally drifted off. But she woke an hour later, and did not sleep much after that.

“’It’s an extremely hard decision for all of us,’ she said. ‘I want to go back to work. I want to have the money. I want to see people. But it’s hard because I’m worried about the virus coming back around. I can’t get my mind off it. It’s very stressful.’”

The director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment called the decision navigating “a really tricky balance between trying to continue to keep the disease transmission at a level at which it won’t overwhelm our hospital systems and allow people to still try and earn a living.”

The fact is that sometimes hyper-partisan wrangling between Trump and governors over whether to re-open has obscured the way many Americans are thinking about the issue. We are not always neatly divided into two political tribes, with Republicans wanting to see restrictions lifted and Democrats wanting to remain shut down. Even within each of us there can be conflicting instincts.

There are, for me.

In her column, Noonan says, “People need hope. Americans live on it. We must return to life. That is where the bias must be.”

She adds: “…we must unleash the creativity of businessmen and businesswomen, an uncalled-on brigade, in this battle. Not only doctors and scientists will get us out of this, business must be on the lines, too.

“…we also have to cooperate by doing the things that contain the illness so that businesses can stay open and functioning. A mask isn’t a sign of submission as some idiots claim. It’s a sign of respect, responsibility and economic encouragement. It says, ‘I’ll do my small part.’”

As usual, Noonan is trenchant.