We're all in this together

A blessed and meaningful Holy Week and Easter Sunday next for our Christian friends. We’re all in this together.

While there have been some bad actors and too much tragedy and doubtlessly some dark days ahead in the Covid-19 battle, it is striking at this special time of the Passover/Easter season, we are experiencing such amazing period of world unity, so many acts of grace and generosity, such noble bravery and solidarity. It has to be unprecedented in all human history. I think the Patriarchs and Moses Jesus and the Apostles, Mohammed, Buddha, Mahavira, Guru Nanak, Bahá'u'lláh, the Hindu sages and other great religious leaders would all be rather surprised and proud of our common humanitarian efforts to help solve this crisis as best and as quickly as we can.

We learn from both the Passover story and the Easter story, that it’s always darkest before the dawn of liberation and redemption. My sense is that through this COVID-19 crisis and response, we will unleash a set of new technological, policy and cultural innovations that will serve to mitigate, respond and minimize future epidemics as well as yield unforeseen benefits leading to a better future for humanity.

Our common resilience and ability to respond is in no small measure due to the incredible work of the semiconductor, computer software, Internet and AI pioneers who made our virtual work-from-home world so highly functional, reliable, relatively ubiquitous and inexpensive.

Imagine our world enduring the Covid-19 crisis without the innovation that Silicon Valley and the entire global tech ecosystem has built in recent decades. And as we look forward, led by intrepid entrepreneurs into new investments in artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, new materials, smart infrastructure and many other promising domains of the future, our lives and those of future generations will stand on the shoulders of the giants who persevered at this difficult time. Like our ancestors who came before, we must cope with danger and difficulties, and that is what our higher calling as human beings asks of us each to do - right now! Ultimately, we shall overcome this crisis and learn to plan for the unexpected, prepare better, stockpile more flexibly, diversify and optimize the supply chain, innovate faster, share more generously, encourage our fellows, and appreciate the manifold blessings we enjoy everyday.

Good luck, good health, and G-dspeed! And to that fervent hope and prayer, we can all join together and say, Amen!