The bottomless pit that is Matt Gaetz managed to reach another low this week when he brought his performance art to another sad level. For those that really don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, Gaetz cancelled his membership to conservative hot spot “The Capital Hill Club.” Seems they got under the Congressman’s skin when they started requiring patrons to be vaccinated.

Like just about anyone else, I was enjoying Twitter just for the comments. Dozens retorted back with some making mention of the fact that Gaetz could be enjoying three meals a day at Club Fed in the near future. That of course was a veiled reference to his possible sex trafficking charges that could come some time this year. This story isn’t really about Gaetz. We could go off the deep end as it pertains to leadership. We can talk about moving cheese, personality profiling, communication models and other such nonsense and really talk about nothing.

True leadership is nearly as much about sacrifice and service as it is about any of those other buzz words or phrases. Gaetz happens to be hitting upon pandemic issues and like any crisis, the pandemic has revealed who the leaders are and who the pretenders are. From the get go there have been two effective strategies that have helped deal with the pandemic: vaccines and masks. While not perfect, they have allowed business to continue. If the vast majority would do both we wouldn’t see our hospitals clogged with idiots.

Our beloved governor in Texas has barred us from requiring masks. He’s barred public places and private places from such a requirement. A political philosophy that prides itself in allowing businesses and private entities to run themselves as they see fit is not allowing them to do it. They’ve essentially reduced themselves to governing by temper tantrum.

So, in our schools we are left to simply highly encourage that administrators, teachers, and students wear masks. In a world where you cannot require compliance, you are left to hope that adults will act like leaders and students will be inclined to follow their example. On my campus the administrators can’t be bothered to wear masks. Some of the teachers can’t either. You can’t make them do it and suggesting it would trample on their precious rights.

It’s all a failure of leadership. Really it’s a foundational failure of adulting. Most parents understand that they have to do things they don’t want to do. Most adults understand that we have to do things we don’t want to do. We may think it’s stupid or that it doesn’t really apply to us. We may think it’s a waste of time. Somewhere deep in the recesses of our psyche we know it really isn’t meant for us. Leaders understand this. Those who like to play leader do not.

Those who like to play leader will go to any lengths to avoid the simplest of things. They avoid the simplest of things because they are afraid it will make them look weak. So, they’ll drink their own urine. They’ll take medicine meant for barnyard animals. They may even resort to bleach or shooting sunlight up their butt. They’ll try all of these mind-numbingly stupid remedies and more just to avoid a simple shot and a simple mask. Good leaders lead by example. Good leaders subjugate their wants and needs for the good of the group. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough good leaders.

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.