IS THE NEW YORK TIMES A LIBERAL NEWSPAPER? OF COURSE IT IS: We Will Forget Much of the Pandemic. That’s a Good Thing.

With luck, in the months and years ahead, the threat of the virus will abate and we will be able to let go of the fear that for many of us has been a near-constant companion over the past two years. With hope, the terrifying images of the pandemic’s ravages — the empty streets and crowded hospitals, the funeral pyres and freezer trucks — will cease to loom so large in our collective memory.

Forgetting some of this fear will allow us to more clearly recall the details we want to remember. For me, those include the astonishing resilience, bravery and sense of collective spirit that emerged two years ago this week as my hometown became an epicenter of this pandemic. Those memories make me hopeful for the future.

No one should forget what the government put us through for the past two years.

(Classical reference in headline.)