Monday, February 22, 2021

Like Reading the Obituaries

If your name's not in there, it's all good. I honestly don't think the death toll in Vietnam bothered anyone all that much. The evening news every night gave a tally of the enemy dead (no doubt made up, though no one really considered saying so at the time, except maybe "Doonesbury."). People just got tired of being at war all the time. Besides, only working class kids went. Kids with any money at all went to college and were deferred indefinitely after that. Even after the disaster and needless deaths in Texas this week, people are talking about their "resilience." They aren't mourning the dead.

Would that it were otherwise.  But what we've learned from this is that too many of us (a tiny but vocal minority) think masks are tyranny.  What we haven't learned is that maybe we should band together and take care of each other.  Of course, I'm not sure we're ever going to learn that lesson; and we'll make sure to blame somebody else for our failures (the underlying reason people yell at other people in line for food and water in Texas, or shout at people wearing masks in stores.  "Guilty dog barks loudest" doesn't really cover it, but it's the best metaphor at hand just now.  There's gotta be something in Greek tragedy or the history of the Israelites that covers this situation....).

I mean, seriously!
I'm sure there's an explanation for this, but I'm at a loss for what it would be.

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