I should be setting my alarm for 6:30 so that I arrive in the parking lot while there are still empty spaces. Hugging and smiling and introducing will occur; I will comfort little ones who don't want to leave Mommy..... at least that was my plan earlier this summer, when the virus seemed to have released its death grip on our County, and people were believing that we could go into public spaces without our masks - our reward for being well behaved during Pandemica.
Instead, I am going over to Scarlet's to play mahjong. I can't risk getting sick, and our Governor has made it impossible for the local district to keep me safe. Masks can no longer be required.
This is, I am told, in defense of my liberties.
All except for life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness - all of which are encapsulated in the fact that I do not feel safe going to the first day of school. The kids will all be under 12 and thus unvaccinated. The grown ups are probably a mixed bag. I could contract the Delta variant and have no symptoms and transmit it to everyone with whom, up until now, it's felt safe to visit.
I suppose this is my punishment for those moments when the reopening of the world felt like more than I could bear, when I remembered the long, empty days with a certain fondness. But, I could cry to the universe, I'd come to terms with allowing events and people back into my life. I had learned to travel safely and to party with my grandkids without endangering their health.
The unvaccinated - if you are reading this please comment and tell me why - served as hosts for a virulent new disease, one that now threatens to morph into still another variant.....Delta Plus, according to Lawrence O'Donnell..... and if someone can explain to me how their liberty trumps mine I'm ready to listen.
Until then, I'm thinking of Jezebel's solution to Yellow Jack..... and if it's gotten to the point where I am thinking about using weaponry to keep myself safe..... well, things have certainly gotten out of hand.
We have a problem. We have a solution. We were almost there. I am so angry.
Tomorrow's post should be stories and pictures of America's newest scholars. I'm going to wallow in self-pity take the day off and regain my composure.
Come back on Monday. I'll have a better attitude, I promise. Til then, stay safe.
I do not understand the unvaccinated. My 30 something niece and nephews have not gotten theirs and they all have children under 12. I am so frustrated. They do not have an explanation, they just say they don't trust the government, like I do. My response to them is...Remember that time you got polio, oh yeah, you don't, because you were vaccinated. They vaccinated all their children with the required vaccines for school and payed for them. Why they won't get the FREE covid vaccine, just baffles me. It obviously works.
ReplyDeleteCan I say there is a difference between "trust" and "truth"? They never got chicken pox or measles or for God's sake POLIO.. as you say. Schools should mandate it - end of story.
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I am very angry as well. I don't understand these people and have no patience for their lame "reasons." Luckily, Monroe County and IU just reinstated a mask requirement for all indoor public spaces which applies to everyone regardless of vaccination status. I had never stopped masking and haven't eaten indoors at a restaurant since February 2020. It looks like that will continue indefinitely. And we will lose many more people as a result of this ignorance and selfishness. Grrrrrr.
ReplyDeleteLet them all live together in one isolated space - with all the governmental services they'd have on the outside so they don't feel deprived of anything, except the freedom to move around, which they've stolen from us so who cares about their whining? - and let them care for their own dead and dying.
DeleteI am so over this stupidity and as you say SELFISHNESS.
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Amen, sister!!
DeleteI still wear my mask in public places, especially indoors where I might not be able to maintain distance. I am more and more in the minority but I really don't trust that this virus has been close to defeated. I am willing to try to understand a certain level of skepticism, but then do the research. This attitude of willful ignorance and proud stupidity is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteProud Stupidity ----Reminds me of Bush 43 laughing at elementary school kids and telling them that even a C student can grow up to be president.
DeleteMore and more masks are on more and more faces in the public spaces I'm encountering.
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Olga said it, "Willful ignorance and proud stupidity."
ReplyDeleteUnderlying these choices for many unvaccinated is politics, and you know who we have to thank for that.
If he had taken his shot on national tv we would not be in this fix.
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I read the comment that it's political and blame the right for the stupidity of not being vaccinated. I know everything is supposed to be political but this a mix. Some are right wingers but many I know are left wingers and have been against vaccinations with the belief improve your immune system by things like oils... Sorry but oils always can have side effects but they push them on their children without considering they are using something untested as a medicine. There are those who don't trust the government, which has changed power, but many just have these weird ideas about vaccines.
ReplyDeleteToo true, Rain. The right is spewing this nonsense publicly, but the anti-vaxxers are left wing-nuts, too. Marin County is certainly no bastion of Trumpism, but there are lots of entitled parents who think autism and infertility and other such thinkgs are a direct result of vaccination. There was a brouhaha in my old school district over the "regular" vaccines - a kindergarten kid was undergoing chemo and couldn't afford to get sick, yet parents were unwilling to vaccinate and protect him. Thankfully, the district had a policy that helped to clarify things, but the issue was HOT.
DeleteI know some never-Trumpers who are unvaccinated. I don't get it. Not at all.
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