Two Stories
I rarely watch the evening local news. I prefer to read my news online where I can search other sources to be sure of the integrity of what I’m reading. But tonight, after the Ravens-Patriots game, I was busy so I left the Salt Lake City news station on. Two stories, one right after the other, caught my attention. The first was about protesters at the governor’s house, demonstrating against the new statewide COVID mandate here in Utah, which includes a mandate to wear masks. The protesters, which included families with young children, held signs with messages like Mandates are tyranny, End the Mask Myth, and Just say no 2 masks. You can read about it here. The second piece was about a four year old boy in San Antonio who lost both parents to COVID, here. His Dad and Mom were 33 and 29, respectively. His grandmother has arrange a big drive-by birthday celebration but, of course, that won’t make up for the loss of his parents. Unfortunately, if you do some internet searching, you’ll find this is all to common.
Two news stories, which when told side-by-side tell a larger story about us as a nation. Very depressing. How many of us have to die before people take this seriously?
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Older Eyes 
November 17, 2020 at 10:33 am
OE – you ask an important question. Science tells us that masks can prevent illness. I don’t love wearing one, but what’s the big deal? Even if you’re not convinced that they work, what do you lose by wearing them?
April 21, 2021 at 9:48 am
As I’m sure you’ve figured out, the answer to your ending question is: “There is no sufficiently high number.” The problem with Covid is that there are no sides. There’s fact and there’s fantasy. I can insist my diesel car will run just fine on gasoline and I can convince millions of people it can. But after a few miles with gasoline in the tank my car will stop and I’ll have a very high repair bill. My beliefs do not affect reality aka fact.
I don’t think there’s anything to be done at this point. Those who haven’t listened by now will not start. What I despair of long-term is that most of the social cleavages in the US are along very similar lines. If one knows a person’s position on one issue, one can predict with a depressing degree of accuracy his position on many others. Many of these lines have fact on one side and fantasy on the other. And the fantasy side has shown itself to be pretty much inured to words.
If you have a magic wand, now would be a good time to start waving it. 🙂
April 22, 2021 at 12:01 am
I pretty much agree, as much as I hate to admit it. Unfortunately, I have no magic wand, I’m the little old man behind the curtain.