Anti-Maskers & Wrong-Way Drivers

Anti-Maskers & Wrong-Way Drivers:

Gotta get up on my soap box for a bit. I compare Anti-Maskers & Wrong-Way Drivers on freeways (or any street, for that matter) as pretty much equal. Sure, a person has a right to horribly injure or kill him/herself by driving the wrong way and, say, crashing into an overpass. Plus, that same Wrong-Way-Driver-Who-Didn't-Wear-A-Mask-At-That-Crowded-Bar-Party also has the same right to get terribly sick, die an awful death, or injure various internal organs for the rest of his/her life if they survive COVID. But...that person DOES NOT have the right to slam head-on into me or infect me, causing me to suffer the same fate as he or she! I recently read an article that posits part of the United States' terrible position as a national world leader of COVID cases and deaths is Americans' very stubborn independent streak in claiming our FREEDOMS! "You can't make me! This is a free country!" Well, "personal freedom" ends when one stops at a red light, drives on the correct side of the road, does not enter another's house uninvited, does not fire a shotgun down a crowded sidewalk, does not yell "FIRE!" in a darkened, crowded movie theater, does not fire rounds from an AK-47 into that theater, or any other manner of things you can think of. I do not wish terrible injuries, catastrophic illness, or horrible deaths on anyone, for I Have experienced terrible illnesses that I never wish to experience again. And I know I will someday die, and I hope my death is peaceful. I pray that it will be. So I don't wish those things on anyone. However, if one chooses to drive the wrong way on a freeway and ignore health advisories by not wearing masks in public, then one must live with the consequences of one's actions...or die with them. The same goes for Anti-Vaxxers. Thank God for the polio vaccine, the smallpox vaccine, and all the other treatments which protect from the indescribable horrors of past diseases. May there be a true COVID-19 vaccine soon. When there is, it will be interesting to know if an Anti-Masker/Anti-Vaxxer will have one. In the 1981 movie "Exaclibur" after Arthur's final victory that unifies England, Merlin quiets the rejoicing knights and says, "Remember it well, this night...for it is the doom of men that they forget." It does seem to be our doom. We forget history because we, ourselves, have never lived it. We don't remember the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 because we didn't live it. We don't remember the "Black Death" pandemic of 1346-1353 because we didn't live it. Many of us don't remember the fright of polio or smallpox because those horrors have largely been eradicated. And, once "our pandemic" is history, those coming after us will be doomed to forget this one because they never lived it. So in our forgetfulness many of us "claim our freedoms" in not wearing masks in public, going to crowded parties to celebrate going to crowded parties, getting drunk at those parties and driving the wrong way on a freeway, or brandishing AK-47s in airports because it is our "freedom" to do so. In 1959 a book, "The Ugly American" written by political scientist Eugene Burdick and U,S. Navy Captain William Lederer, became a NYTimes Best Seller. The book, also made into a movie, critiqued the awful behavior of American politicians and diplomats in other countries. It pictured the "American Arrogance" in politics as well as in private life. "The Ugly American" became a buzz phrase for all American Arrogance. It could well become such a buzz phrase now. I am proud to be an American. I am glad I was born one. I am not proud of the "Ugly Americans" we see around us in these times. And I truly hope I'm never one.

And...as Forrest Gump says..."that's all I have to say about that."