Who Are "These People"?

 I was so happy when vaccines started rolling out in January.  "At last," I thought, "We can really do something against this bug. Soon, the world will be free." There was urgency because people were dying and most of us understood we needed to get the vaccine out there before it morphed into something that the vaccine wouldn't work against.

But no.  Now, six months later, we are limping along with national virus hotspots and a virulent morphed strain of COVID-19. Now we have a bunch of people who are selfish, lazy losers whose behavior exemplifies the best in the toddler perspective of "You can't tell me what to do." 

To get a shot take about 15 seconds and yet even bribes won't make people take the time to get vaccinated. And now, we have a new group of people in the hospital and guess what, they are children.  Children who are too young to get vaccinated. Children on ventilators who were exposed to unvaccinated grown ups. Grown ups who myopically think it's only about them, who refuse to look at the big picture of how their personal  behavior affects everyone around them. 

I was horrified to learn that some of our supposed leaders gathered, maskless naturally, in a group in Texas and cheered when fear monger Alex Berenson said that the nation is falling short of getting 70 percent of Americans vaccinated, like that is a good thing.  How many of them are vaccinated? Probably most of them. Who are these people who think allowing other Americans to die is great? Who are those who think it's okay to lie about vaccinations (what some call "misinformation") in order to achieve political ends?

Let's get one thing straight: No one is going door-to-door to force you to get vaccinated.  What they are going to do is give you information that doesn't come from the internet or your buddies and then asking, asking, ASKING you to exercise that personal responsibility you like to flaunt and think about getting vaccinated.

Let's discuss mythical vaccine side effects: Bill Gates is not going to seize your brain. Even if he could he wouldn't want yours because you are so unbelievably dumb. You're not going to lose your fertility but that might not be a bad idea if you are so foolish to believe that you might. We don't need more stupidity in the world. You aren't going to go blind, or deaf or have your teeth or your hair fall out, your penis fall off or any other foolishness that is circulating on the Internet.

You want the economy to open up? You want people to go back to work? You want kids in school? Then shift your lazy ass personal responsibility and go get the free shot. 

Do I sound cranky? You bet I am.  I have lost patience with people who are willing to gamble with the lives of children even as they mouth platitudes about the sacredness of something called "family values" and "personal responsibility". "These people" really don't care about either of those. They do not care about creating better futures for us.  "These people" care about power. Dividing people, ridiculing other people, calling other people names, and outright lying are how "these people" win elections.

"These people" care nothing for "those people" who want to protect and save as many of us as we can.

 

And Rudy Guiliani Was Sane

 It's our family tradition that on July 4th we plug in the DVD of the Concert for New York. We do this because we have a nervous dog  and The Who are loud enough to drown out the booms of  any incoming mortar fireworks. We usually skip all the speeches and stories and just play the music but this year because the fireworks started extra early and were extra loud, we decided to watch the whole thing. 

We're on the eve of American troops leaving Afghanistan on September 11, 2021 twenty years after we dropped the first bomb. It's poignant to watch where we were 20 years ago; to listen to what we thought and see what we looked liked then, and to hear what we hoped for after our cozy American world was forever changed. Before September 11, it never occurred to us that terrorists could attack us on our own ground.

"We are All One and Stand Together. No One Can Divide Us." was echoed through all the words spoken that night. "We Love and Care For Each Other. We are Grateful." "We will build something better. We will be better." "We Will Be a Beacon for the World".

And Rudy Guiliani was sane.  

What happened to us?