This is an opinion column.

I don’t know when Alabama began comparing itself to California, but it started before I was born and I grew up imagining it as hell on Earth.

First, there were horror stories of things that happened there – earthquakes, mudslides and wildfires. Who would want to live in such a place? These comparisons always left out Alabama’s seasonal calamities — tornadoes, hurricanes and August.

The culture and politics in California were supposed too extreme for human life, also — from loose morals in San Francisco to business-crushing taxes and regulations out of Sacramento. Somehow these arguments failed to foretell California becoming the fifth largest economy in the world.

Data is funny like that, and Alabama’s feelings never fit with California’s facts. With the significant exception of cost of living, California has led Alabama in most measurements of quality of life.

Now, that state is leading Alabama in quality of death, too. And one Alabamian, in particular, has gotten her comparisons mixed up again.

“Y’all, we are not Louisiana, we are not New York State, we are not California,” Gov. Kay Ivey said this week. “Right now is not the time to order people to shelter in place.”

On Friday, Gov. Ivey ordered the closure of non-essential businesses, and that’s good, but she again stopped short of a shelter-in-place order.

And she’s right about one thing: Alabama is not any of those places, especially California. But probably not how she thinks.

As the Washington Post pointed out, when measured per capita, more people in Alabama have been diagnosed with the disease than in California.

We’re not California. We’re worse.

But that’s just the data talking.

I don’t expect Ivey to stop comparing Alabama to California. Old Alabama habits are harder to break than tearing down Confederate monuments in public parks. But if she insists on the comparisons, she needs to keep going.

Alabama is not California. Nor is it West Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Minnesota …

So far 23 states have ordered citizens to shelter in place, not just Ivey’s favorite three.

Ivey is missing another important point, too. The disease is spreading here faster here than in New York, when you account for population.

Just because we have fewer cases and fewer deaths now, doesn’t mean we won’t have more later. These numbers change every day and comparing where we are now to states that got hit harder and hit first makes no more sense than comparing an ancient oak to a sapling next to it and assuming one will always be bigger than the other.

While Louisiana has seen more coronavirus cases and more deaths than Alabama, our state’s track is pretty close to our neighbor two-doors over.

New York is conspicuous because it’s the nation’s worst hot spot, but that doesn’t mean we should take any comfort comparing ourselves to the Empire State. As Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned this week, don’t let what’s happening to New York happen to you.

And that’s the biggest mistake Ivey is making with these silly comparisons: The whole point of sheltering in place today is so that we won’t become a New York tomorrow.

If Kay Ivey doesn’t act soon, we might.

California is a model to follow, right now, not a false comparison to make us feel better about ourselves.

But don’t fret, governor. We’ll still have Mississippi.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.

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