Not all heroes wear capes

‘Not all heroes wear capes’

Truer words have never been spoken.

It's interesting to see which "essential workers" get called out as heroes, and which ones get largely forgotten. In this, I see (front row) a janitor, four medical workers, and a grocery store worker, as well as (back row) a fireman, a police officer, a postal worker, and a teacher. That more or less covers the range of professions that most people think of when they hear "essential worker", but the truth is there are tons of uncelebrated workers who are just as essential. The hospitals are certainly bearing the brunt of this, but they can't do it alone. There's an entire medical supply chain that backs them up, from manufacturing, to warehousing, to transportation. The same holds true for grocery stores, with farmers and ranchers, food processing facilities, and more truck drivers. Gas stations and mechanics are needed to keep all that freight moving domestically. Airlines that normally cater to passengers have largely switched over to carrying freight around the world, including essential medical supplies. None of this happens without utility workers keeping the lights turned on, natural gas/liquid propane flowing and the phones and internet operating. The military keeps defending against anyone who would take advantage of this time of vulnerability, as well as supporting overburdened front-line medical professionals. Between zoos, and animal shelters, and pet stores, there are tons of animals that would die without people taking care of them. All this shift to web-based communication wouldn't be possible without electronics stores to supply new equipment and fix stuff when it breaks. A lot of these workers rely on public transportation to get around. Many people who _aren't_ on the list of "essential workers" are suddenly reliant on public funding to afford to feed their families, and someone has to be processing all those payments behind the scenes. With people getting a bit too creative about what they use in lieu of toilet paper, plumbers and sewer service workers are more essential now than they were before this all blew up.

The US government released a list of what could be considered "essential workers". I've tried to read through it twice now, and it's so shockingly long that my eyes glazed over both times. If that painting was accurate, it should include several hundred minifigs, many of which wouldn't have identifiable professions just based on how they dress. The list of recognized essential workers is so much smaller than the list of actual essential workers that my own state government shut down all of the public rest stops in the state because nobody should be traveling anywhere under a stay-at-home order. They forgot about all the long haul truck drivers.

So, when you see a list of "essential workers" like this, just take a moment to realize that for every minifig you see represented here, there are a shockingly large number of uncelebrated minifigs standing off-camera doing all the things that make it possible for these few to do their job.