Heading to the local bar, restaurant or hopping between them was a great hobby of mine for much of my 20s.

Some of the best years of my life were spent playing Euchre, watching sports, downing some brewskis and laughing it up with friends far and wide.

Holidays were spent with the same friends doing things like camping, canoeing, having house parties, hot tubbing and having massive cookouts. People brought their kids. We played horseshoes, cornhole and gave “high-five’s” like there was no tomorrow.

Looking back on those days I realize how impossible they would be to relive if I was trying to avoid COVID-19.

I think people in Wisconsin did a good job of social distancing from the start of “Safer at Home” all the way up until Memorial Day weekend. Then, because we had been successfully keeping cases low, we stopped protecting ourselves and others.

The number of COVID-19 cases in rural counties like Green was and remains low. As of Monday there have only been a total of 110 cases of the virus reported in the county. How is it going to be possible to catch COVID-19 let-alone spread it? There are many rationalizations that take place when considering social gathering with COVID-19. “I work with these people and none of them are sick…,” “We’re together as friends regularly and there’s no way his wife or her husband has it…,” “I can social distance at my friend’s cookout and it will be fine, I don’t have to wear a mask…”

During Memorial Day weekend, Wisconsinites and others in similar states threw caution to the wind. And sure enough, in the days following that holiday, there was a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Then, when things seemed to be calming down again, the Fourth of July came. And in the days following that holiday the state experienced some of the highest numbers of new COVID-19 cases per day at more than 800. Nationwide, we’ve recently been recording 60,000 new cases of COVID-19 regularly since July 8. That’s much like everyone in the city of Janesville catching COVID-19 every day.

Where have we failed? We didn’t take the “Safer at Home” period seriously. Instead of one family member going to stores one day a week, shopping trips often looked like family outings. We were sketchy about the rules when it came to spending time only with our families. People who could have worked from home often decided they needed to get out of the house and go into work.

Did they get COVID-19? No, not all of them. Did they continue the spread? Yes, through slight cases and asymptomatic cases, COVID-19 hung on… And there was just enough that when the dam broke on Memorial Day weekend, we were headed on a dangerous path.

Now, as we’re trying to phase in business openings, which need to happen to sustain livelihoods and somehow break the crippling economic grip on institutions like bars, taverns, restaurants and other places where people gather, we’re seeing more cases than ever.

Some people may say, “We can never stop COVID-19, why even try?” Well, that’s a defeatist attitude that has rarely been seen in the United States since the end of World War II. Take, for example, the steps New Zealand put into place to fight the spread of COVID-19. People there took seriously the obligations of their “Safer at Home” policies. New Zealand virtually eliminated the spread of the virus. There’s a reason why other countries are blocking United States citizens as visitors. We failed in our first go-around at stopping COVID-19. We’re not the only country, but the numbers show we have the biggest problem.

Part of the failure is inherent to our health system. Despite having the world’s most robust economy, we have some of the worst-funded public health and education systems in the first world. We are led by people who have been horrible examples of fighting the pandemic. The pandemic was ignored, miracles were touted over science, and when our best medical experts have given prudent advice they’ve been ignored if not downright shunned.

As COVID-19 continues to cancel public events important to our lives, the death toll continues to climb and we, perhaps, are ordered to retreat back into “Safer at Home” again because the pandemic is far from under control, there’s going to be blowback. Instead of complaining and listening to talking heads say such foolish things such as “people are just going to have to die,” please remember this…

The United States prepared itself to fight World War II in six months. Just a few generations ago our nation saved the entire free world from totalitarian rule. How did we do it? We used American science, ingenuity, courage and drive. We sacrificed… Who sacrificed? Virtually all Americans. You didn’t see people throwing tantrums in public places saying they had a right just to let the enemy win.

We have to be able to do this again and again to survive as a nation. It takes leadership like FDR’s famous “Fireside chats,” statesmanship and bipartisanship to win such wars. Certainly, there were differences that had to be ironed out. We’ve always had the leadership to bring people together to succeed.

Ask yourself — honestly — if that’s happening now?

It’s not.

People who can see this basic failure have a responsibility to acknowledge this and work toward positive change. That’s our duty and obligation, as Abraham Lincoln said, “as a nation of the people, by the people and for the people.”

— Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.