You Could've Helped...Yet You Ignored Our Pleas

We're not even "The Pretty Good Generation"

One of the things that drives me nuts about America is the collective tolerance we have for willful stupidity and religion-based ignorance. We have tremendous respect for those who think they’re far smarter than they actually are and for those whose faith sanctions ignorance and reaction. I’ve never understood it, I never WILL understand it, and yet here we are…a nation that mistrusts science even as it celebrates sheer, abject, proud ignorance.

We’re in the midst of a global epidemic that’s killed millions around the world, including almost 600,000 here in America. Even when faced with such tragic facts, 30% of us “don’t see the urgency” to get vaccinated. There are three vaccines available that have proven to be safe and effective. Despite this, there are people who refuse to consider getting any of them because they “don’t know what’s in them.”

Never mind that many of these intellectual stalwarts have no problem with drinking Mountain Dew, eating chili dogs, and using deodorant. No one really knows what’s in all that stuff, either, yet that doesn’t seem to stop anyone. Could it be that they simply don’t want to examine their own ignorance and selfishness?

It would require somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-85% of Americans being vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, the point where it becomes difficult for the coronavirus to propagate. When you take 30% off the top because of fear, ignorance, religion, and distrust of science…well, you can do the math. It doesn’t leave us in a good place.

During WWII, what came to be known as “The Greatest Generation” pulled together to save America, Europe, and the rest of the world from the scourge of Nazism and Imperial Japan. Even many of those who didn’t fight played an important role. Women worked in factories churning out war materiel in mind-boggling quantities. Every fiber of this country was focused on defeating Germany and Japan in an effort unlike anything seen before or since.

The moniker “The Greatest Generation” was deserved. An entire nation pulled together to defeat a common enemy. No, the effort wasn’t perfect (ask the Japanese-Americans who were interred simply for their ethnicity), but America came together as it never had before.

Could the same thing happen today? Given what this country has been through just since Barack Obama was elected in 2008, it seems very unlikely. No one’s asking Americans to enlist, go to a foreign country, and/or risk their lives by storming the beaches of Iwo Jima or Normandy. All we’re asking Americans to do is to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated against COVID-19.

That’s it. It takes about 30 seconds, and you’ll need to do it twice. Two weeks after the second shot, you’re fully protected against COVID-19. Even if you somehow contract the virus, which is still a remote possibility, the vaccine will almost certainly keep you out of the hospital.

Instead, 30% of Americans not only refuse to take this simple step, but many of them also refuse to wear face masks and observe basic COVID-19 protective protocols. It’s about “their rights,” don’tchaknow? The government can’t tell them what to do, and they certainly can’t infringe upon their freedom and liberty by forcing them to get vaccinated and/or wear a face mask.

The COVID-19 pandemic is this generation’s opportunity to pull together and show that it trusts in institutions and believes in the common good and national cohesion. It’s not that we lack the technology or the know-how to meet it head-on; it’s that we chose to ignore and soft-pedal it until it became impossible to ignore.

When the pandemic became a clear and present danger and people began dying in large numbers, the lies began. The Trump Administration, which should have been leading the response and coordinating the search for a vaccine, dawdled and acted as if nothing was amiss.

Donald Trump’s supporters followed his lead and largely refused to accept that COVID-19 was the threat it would turn out to be. Trump’s lackeys infiltrated the CDC and other agencies that should have been at the forefront of a federal response. Instead, the federal government was behind the curve from the start.

Absent strong leadership from the President, many Americans refused to accept what they were hearing from scientists and medical experts. They came to believe that “trust the science” was merely code for convincing them to forfeit their civil rights to Big Government.

For the past almost 15 months, Conservative Americans have demonstrated that they’re nothing like “The Greatest Generation.” Instead of committing to working for the common good, these “patriots” descended ever further into the cult of selfishness. They showed themselves to be far more concerned with their own rights, freedoms, and liberty than with the country as a whole.

Instead of pulling together and doing what needed to be done to save American lives, they’ve increasingly shown a metaphorical middle finger to those they disagree with. They’ve rejected the advice of scientists and medical experts. Many have refused to wear masks and in some cases have become belligerent and combative when confronted by businesses and institutions that require them.

One of the newest, most regular, and most objectionable news features are the (invariably White) patriots who create a scene when asked to wear a mask. Whether it’s at a restaurant, a Costco, or on an airplane, there’s that one person who feels that the rules don’t and shouldn’t apply to them…and that the rest of us are “sheep” for playing along.

No, this is most definitely NOT “The Greatest Generation.” The selfishness and lack of compassion displayed by so many of my fellow Americans during a global pandemic have been truly distressing. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is as much about protecting yourself as it is about protecting those around you. Sadly, too many “patriots” are so deep into the cult of selfishness that they can’t see past their own self-interest.

We should be better than this…and most Americans are. It’s those few devotees of the cult of selfishness who’ve made a tragic and challenging time in our history even worse. At a time when we should be pulling in the same direction, their selfishness, ignorance, and belligerence have succeeded in making a trying time even more agonizing.

I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking there should be reserved parking spaces in Hell for these folks. Whether they care to admit it or not- and I’m fairly certain they won’t- I firmly believe they bear some responsibility for the many thousands of Americans who’ve died. They’ve could’ve pitched in. They could’ve helped their fellow Americans.

They chose not to. I’m not certain I’d want to bear the karma that surely accompanies such carelessness and lack of compassion.