May You Live In Interesting Times
And may ignorant, selfish, and horribly arrogant fools make that time WAY more interesting than it needs to be
I no longer have any intention of sacrificing my life, my time, my freedom and the adolescence of my son, as well as their right to study properly, for those who refuse to be vaccinated. This time you stay at home, not us.
I’ve finally realized that we’ve been approaching the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine hesitancy/refusal completely back-asswards. For too long, we’ve ceded the high ground to those who refuse to get vaccinated. These cretins have essentially determined what society is, or isn’t, able to do.
That needs to end. Yesterday.
The reason we’re entering a “fourth wave” with the deadly Delta variant is that we’ve caved to those who believe it’s their “right” to refuse the vaccine. “MY BODY, MY RIGHT!!” they yell to anyone listening. They see no contradiction in completely whiffing on the irony that they reject that same argument when it’s used by those who support abortion rights.
What we’re experiencing now is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, which, from where I sit, is too polite by far. Truthfully, it’s a pandemic of the ignorant, selfish, and horribly arrogant. We are where we are because of the people who’ve decided that they know better than the doctors and scientists.
Hey, I know what’s real! I watch YouTube videos, and I get my news and information from Facebook and Fox News Channel!! I know what I’m talking about
The quote at the top has been repeatedly and mistakenly mangled and misattributed to French President Emmanuel Macron. It was actually written by an Italian journalist…which makes it no less impactful and meaningful. Ms. Lucarelli makes an excellent point, in that humanity needs to stop bowing to those who refuse to get vaccinated. We need to stop kowtowing to their righteous rage and indignation over “vaccine passports.”
More than anything, we need to start making it clear that refusing to do the right thing- getting vaccinated- can, will, and should carry significant risks beyond the substantial risk to their health. These moral reprobates need to feel the social stigma of being pushed aside because they’ve refused to take a simple step millions already have.
I’ve written an open letter to those who’ve chosen not to get vaccinated with that in mind. I’m under no illusion that my words will move immovable objects. I’m doing this primarily for my own mental health. Nevertheless, there are things I need to get off my chest. Short of strangling one of the selfish fools and dumping their body in the Willamette River, this seems a more socially acceptable (and legal) option.
To Whom It Clearly Doesn’t Concern:
I’m not normally inclined to tell others what to do. Free will is an important concept to me, as is “live and let live.” People should, under normal circumstances, be free to make the best decisions they can and take whatever action they feel is in their best interest.
However, the past almost 18 months have been anything but “normal circumstances.”
There’s an old Chinese curse that roughly translated says, “May you live in interesting times.” The past almost 18 months HAVE been interesting…and terrifying, maddening, and horrible.
I’m concerned that far too many of you have decided that you know more than doctors and scientists. You’ve arrogantly chosen to reject the knowledge, experience, and rigorous scientific endeavors of those like Dr. Anthony Fauci, who’s devoted five decades to studying infectious diseases.
You’ve chosen to reject life-saving vaccines based on years of studies, research, and data. Unfortunately, the arguments you make contain what you believe to be facts, but too often are specious rumors gleaned from YouTube videos, Fox News talking heads, and social media.
You say you’ve “done your research.” But, sadly, what you’ve done is listen to your bartender, your hairdresser, or your QAnon-loving cousin who believes the vaccines contain microchips that will allow the government to track your every move.
Do you not realize that your cell phone is a tracking device? You’re obsessed with the inherent “evil” of a vaccine you believe carries a microchip allowing you to be tracked (it doesn’t), even as you carry a device that actually CAN track you.
No, you haven’t “done your research.” Instead, you’ve chosen to use a lame, paper-thin “argument” to reject scientific facts that don’t mesh with your agenda. Unfortunately, your ignorance and blindness are exceeded only by your arrogance and selfishness. Your refusal to believe that the COVID-19 vaccine will help protect you from the deadly Delta variant may ultimately kill you.
I’m not bothered by your unwillingness to take even the most basic precautions to protect yourself and those you come into contact with. What does upset me is that you betray exactly ZERO concern for anyone but yourself in your ignorant rush to an early, tragic, and wholly preventable death.
You may think you have the right to make decisions regarding your own health…and you certainly do. However, what you don’t have the right to do is to infect and possibly kill others because you’re too dense, arrogant, and selfish to think of anyone but yourself.
If you think that I’m angry, you get to go to the head of the class, Sparky. You’re damned right I’m angry. More than 600,000 Americans have succumbed (most needlessly) to COVID-19 to date. With a few basic precautions (masking, social distancing, getting vaccinated), many- perhaps even most- of those lives could’ve been saved. There would’ve been precious little effort required on your part, and that effort, when combined with millions like you, would’ve had a tremendous impact.
Instead, I hear people squawking about “My rights!!!” Yes, rights are important…but they don’t exist in a vacuum. What you don’t realize- or conveniently choose to ignore- is that rights come with corresponding responsibilities, neither more important than the other.
For example, you have the right to make decisions regarding your health that you feel are most appropriate. However, that right comes bundled with the corresponding responsibility to conduct yourself in a manner that looks after the health, safety, and well-being of the larger community around you.
Tragically, you’ve been so wrapped up in championing “My rights!!!” that you’ve chosen to ignore your responsibility to those around you. No, you don’t exist in a vacuum, yet your narcissistic and egotistical decision to reject the vaccine could have a direct and potentially deleterious impact on your community.
I’ve reached the limits of my patience with people who believe that the world revolves around their rights, even as they ignore their responsibilities. I’m sick of ignorant, cavalier, and self-seeking people refusing to do the right thing for not only their health but the health and safety of their community.
I’m tired of the unvaccinated setting the agenda through their intransigence and insufferable arrogance. I’m tired of the irresponsible behavior of the intellectual bereft and the morally bankrupt having an outsized impact on the rest of us.
Go ahead; keep screaming about vaccine passports, communism, and government overreach. Continue whining about how you’re tired of being oppressed by Big Government and Big Pharma. Keep pontificating about how they’re trying to force you to take a vaccine when you don’t know what’s in it.
(How many things do you consume every day despite not understanding the ingredient list?)
No, you’ve made a conscious decision to be stupid, shallow, and irresponsible…and I’m sick and tired of it. If you want your rights to be respected, come back and talk to me after you’ve met your responsibilities.
Until then, all you fine, principled, unvaccinated patriots should be the ones bearing the burden of your irresponsible behavior. Proof of vaccination should be required for anyone wishing to do virtually anything outside of their home. If that sounds harsh, it’s meant to be.
Behavior modification isn’t supposed to be pleasant.
I want to live my life free of the danger of contracting COVID-19 from someone too selfish and irresponsible to do the right thing for the right reason. If segregating y’all into the equivalent of house arrest strikes you as tough and unfair, that’s really too bad. There’s one simple way to escape your unvaccinated house arrest, of course:
Get vaccinated.
I’m no longer willing to put my life on hold because some folks are concerned only about themselves. It’s time for y’all to suffer some of the privations that responsible, caring, and compassionate members of society have.
You don’t have to like what I have to say. Frankly, I don’t give a damn. It’s time for the unvaccinated among us to bear the burdens that the rest of us have for the past 18 months. If you survive long enough, perhaps you might even have a change of heart.
I’m done being polite, and I’m done being nice. If y’all can’t see your way clear to doing the right thing on your own, perhaps it’s time for the federal government to begin considering mandating vaccines…and enforcing that mandate. No, I don’t like that idea any more than anyone else, but there’s no freedom to be willfully stupid when it endangers those in the wider community.
Do the right thing…or deal with the consequences. It’s not a difficult concept.
The soapbox creaks as Jack slowly steps off to rapturous applause and adulation….
I really don’t like being angry, and I always don’t enjoy it when anger comes through in my writing. But, that said, I believe there’s a time and place when we must choose the hill we wish to (metaphorically) die on. For me, it’s the knowledge that more than 600,000 Americans have died because the Dumbest Generation couldn’t shake their lethargy and self-interest.
I’m tired of listening to mental and moral dwarfs like Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the rest of the Double-Digit-IQ Caucus acting as if they and THEY alone are America’s moral and intellectual compasses.
I’m under no illusion that anything I have to say will change hearts and minds. Hell, there are members of my own family who remain unvaccinated. I can only pray to the God I don’t believe in that I won’t have to bury any of them, but that decision is out of my hands.
Decisions have consequences…and not merely for the individual making a decision. That’s what upsets me so much- the idea that decisions are made in a void and that consequences are for losers and Liberals who believe in science instead of Jesus and Donald Trump.
What will become of America? I wish I knew. I’m just sick and tired of feeling that this pandemic is a constant pas de deux with the Devil- three steps forward, two steps back.
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Thanks for tuning in! This is Dick Metaphor signing off. Have a great Tuesday!!