The Me Me Me Generation
A funny thing happened last night. We were watching the Olympics and minding our own business when we perused CNN online and saw the headline and picture. It was someone my wife had gone to school with. She was right there plastered on the headline. Seems she had not taken the vaccine and was now in the hospital.
She was quoted as saying that she wasn’t anti-vax, but just hadn’t gotten around to taking it. Sure. Makes perfect sense. There are tons of things I don’t seem to get around to doing. I haven’t finished cleaning the garage. I haven’t gone to the dentist in years. There are still a stack of papers on the kitchen table that need to be sorted. I’m sure many of you have a similar list of chores that keep piling up.
A part of this is simple priorities. We do the things that are important to us and put off the things that aren’t. So, for this person it seems getting the jab just wasn’t a priority. She admitting being mad at herself and my wife confirmed she has been like this for the past 30 years.
Some people are selfish. Some people are lazy. Okay, let’s get real here. Most people are selfish and most people are lazy. Most people don’t do what’s best for them even when they know what that is. For approximately half of the population, it is also about knowing more than the experts and not wanting to be told what to do.
In less than two weeks we will be returning to school. The governor (in his infinite wisdom) has lifted the mask mandate. To put it more accurately, he has said that you cannot mandate masks. So, some people will wear them, but most people likely will not. It is the same with the vaccine. Some people got the shot and some people didn’t
As negative as it might sound, this just isn’t good enough. Time and memorial have proven that we can’t successfully do this. You can’t simply allow people to make up their own mind on things like this. They have to be drug, kicking and screaming, into the future. It happened with the polio vaccine. It happened with the small pox vaccine. It’s happened with the measles and the mumps. We had to force people to get the shot.
Small pox is gone. Polio is virtually gone and certainly gone in the United States. We’ve put a serious dent in measles, chicken pox, and the mumps as well. Your feelings and my feelings didn’t matter. We got the shot or we didn’t go to school. We could find an obscure YouTube video or a Google site that spouted some bullshit all we wanted. We still got the shot.
COVID isn’t a dirty garage. COVID isn’t a stack of papers on the kitchen table. COVID isn’t a cavity or potential root canal that is being pushed back. It’s not an uncut lawn or faded siding on the house. Now, that we are going back to school it is high time we start requiring the shot at least of all the adults working in the school. Children over 12 should be getting it too. COVID doesn’t care about your feelings about vaccines and we shouldn’t either. Sit down. Shut up. Get the shot.
Just this morning my lone Democrat friend here in town emailed me and said a 93 year-old friend of hers still hasn’t gotten the vaccine because she says she has a “strong immune system.” The church both of these women go to has informed the congregation that all the members are fully vaccinated, and this woman is keeping it a secret from them that she isn’t. My friend is skipping church for now. The woman says she’s not anti-vax but just doesn’t think she “needs it.” This is what we’re up against.
1from time immemorial.
2The irony of the antivax crowd saying they won’t get the shots because they’re “experimental”, and them now being the Control Group escapes them.
3‘When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.’
C. S. Lewis
‘You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.’
4C. S. Lewis
I’m past feeling sorry for the antivaxxers that get covid. Let’s face it, they predominantly belong to a certain party. As they probably only think of themselves, they can’t say they’re sorry that they gave it to someone else, too. Perhaps a child too young for the vaccine yet or a person that has a reduced immune system because of illness or medication will be the victim of these people. And it spreads and spreads instead of being under control.
5Finally the governor of Oregon is mandating masks for K-12 in most counties this fall. Right now, the Delta variant is spreading like it did in the spring in many counties. Our grandkids stay with us during the week and I’ve been concerned for them going back to school.
I’m not a person that can’t function or debilitated for my age (70), but unfortunately, I take medication that both reduced the vaccine effectiveness and makes me vulnerable now. Believe there are millions like me that have been vaccinated. I’m wearing a mask in public places for the foreseeable future.
Two things in life: decisions and consequences.
6Keith Kennedy, yeah, an eggcorn I hadn’t seen before! 🙂
7By definition, half the population is dumber than average.
That’s the half that’s still unvaccinated, and they will stay that way until someone forces them to do the right thing. Or die resisting it.
Alas, the gov appears to be in that lower half, himself, so I don’t expect a vac or mask mandate from him.
8Has the God of The Old Testament sent us a plague to thin the herd and remove the “Darwin Award “ group from the gene pool. For the betterment of gene pool. And the voters who are ignoring His Son’s teachings.
9Amen. Just get the freaking shots. Immediately.
10Thanks, Keith. I was wracking my brain trying to come up with the correct expression, and I just couldn’t come up with the spelling of immemorial.
11See? I couldn’t even spell rack correctly. Sigh.
12Looks like abbutt and desantis are competing to get the most kids (and others) sick this fall. Desantis signed an order today banning any mask mandates at schools no matter how bad it gets. For the sake of innocent people, I hope they don’t have a disaster this fall, but that appears to be what he wants.
13They both have the White House in their dreams and they think this is a way to get there.
AK Lynne – I hate to tell you but you were right the first time on “wrack”.
14As GOP Fights Science, Covid-19 Becomes America’s ‘Honey Badger’ Crisis Jul 30, 2021
Ari Melber video:
15https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s2t3b_mhPM
By any measure, people like Abbott, DeathSantis, tRump, et pluribus alia, are going to go down in history as some of the world’s most prolific mass murderers and killers ever known.
By greatly assisting the spread of COVID-19 cases* and deaths, they’ve already exceeded the worst at the top of this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killing#Global_databases_of_mass_killings
How in hell ~30-40% of the US population remains oblivious to the massacre taking place all around them is beyond belief.
* Keep in mind that we are slowly learning that COVID-19 is resulting in many and varied serious aftereffects occurring beyond it’s immediate symptoms in some patients.
The relatively new Delta variant is notable for it’s virulence and aftereffects.
—And with a huge breeding pool of unvaccinated available, other mutating variants are evolving constantly; look out for the Lambda variant et al coming along. Of which the ‘fittest’ [from the virus’s viewpoint] survives and thrives.
—This may possibly get far worse than most can imagine.
This pandemic could conceivably evolve into the equivalent of the Dark Age’s “Black Death” [bubonic plague], with morbidity and mortality rates exceeding 50%.
Howabout we call this the “Red, or Rethug, Death” plague?
16A Nervous list growing larger by the hour…
~ Don Lemon on Jim Jordan: Does this guy seem nervous to you?
Listen to a guilty man caught on tape stumbling over the truth.
17Some others of the same ilk with said problem:
*************************************
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeSRO_vikIQ
The NSGOP has been told (and has been telling us) for years that the Democrats are not just their opponents. The Dems are the enemy. They are socialists, communists, atheists, cheaters, sex fiends, baby killers, Nazis, unAmerican, and unpatriotic. They’ve also called us bad people. A pretty large percentage of the NSGOP actually believe that.
In saying and believing all that, they’ve painted themselves into a corner. For them to agree to wearing a mask or getting vaccinated would amount to admitting the Democrats are right. They would have to swallow oceans of false pride, and they are bygawd not going to do that. They would literally rather die first.
The culture wars are not free of casualties.
18