"I Would Do Anything to Protect My Child"

 I've thought long and hard about this post. I've considered that I may get blasted from readers, but that's OK. I need to say this.

Before I start, I've been thinking about this before President Biden made his speech yesterday. And, I was not in a position to watch or listen to the speech. I've only seen excerpts of it. So, here are some of my thoughts on the vaccine and mandating it.

As the title says, most every parent I know, myself included, has said at one time or another that they would do anything to protect their child. Really? Then why not get the COVID vaccine? THAT protects your child...from you should you contract the virus.

I've heard all the arguments, and if people would actually do the research of the science of the vaccine, they would see that the vaccine form has been in development for at least 10 years. They (the scientists) just had to find the right combination to kickstart the immune system into fighting off the virus.

They say they don't want to be mandated into doing anything. Well, think about it. It's been mandated since my children were in school (and both are in their 40s now) that without the MMR and Polio vaccines, they can't attend public school. Did you think about that? I know there are some parents that are against vaccines altogether and most of their reasons are faulty. So, for those out there that started getting the shots during well baby check-ups, those were vaccines. And for the most part, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, whooping cough, smallpox and so many other diseases had been eradicated due to these vaccines. Until, the anti-vaxxers decided not to vaccinate their children. Those diseases have made a comeback, but, if you vaccinate against them, they will go away again.

Another argument is that people get a flu shot every year and it has not gotten rid of the flu. Each year there are several different strains of flu, and the vaccine cannot cover all of them. It's the same with COVID. We are actually on the 5th strain, although not much has been said yet about the Lambda strain. The Delta strain has proven the most contagious. And it is attacking our children. 

Yes, there are breakthrough infections. My parents (in their 80s and 90s) were both fully vaccinated and both contracted the virus. But, they were not hospitalized. And even though they were quite ill, and suffer from some of the long-term side effects, they have basically recovered. My sister is just now recovering from the virus and she still has some side effects. My son-in-law was just diagnosed yesterday. He and my sister were also both fully vaccinated. My sister received the antibody infusion and my son-in-law is being scheduled to received it. So no, the vaccine is not a magic bullet, but it helps. As do masks, and social distancing. I've already written a post about masks and you can find it after this one. People have been saying that there were no flu cases last year. That may be basically true. But why do you suppose that is? PEOPLE WERE WEARING MASKS AND WASHING THEIR HANDS AND SOCIAL DISTANCING!!! See how that works? 

People were saying that the military was refusing the vaccine. The only active duty member that I know of got the vaccine...after recovering from the virus, and she's only in her 20s. The military have had mandatory vaccinations at least as far back as 1972 when my first husband enlisted. And depending on where in the world you were going to be stationed, there may have been some area specific vaccinations. They generally don't get to say no to vaccines.

So, the mandates would not have been necessary yesterday if people started thinking more about the greater good than themselves and being inconvenience. It doesn't take away any rights or turn us into a fascist state. And maybe if it hadn't been politicized in the beginning, everyone would have been vaccinated as soon as they could be and we would all be back to as normal a life as possible.

So, do your part. Protect your children, protect your elderly family members and protect your neighbors. And in the process, you may just protect yourself.

By the way, read about the 1918 flu epidemic and the "mandates" then. And if it helps, change the word vaccinate to inoculate. We were all inoculated in school. Remember the polio vaccine on the sugar cube? And lining up to get shot in the arm? I still have my scar...and proud of it!

As I said, this will probably make some people mad, but I couldn't keep silent any longer.

This is a hard post to write. I'm still reeling from the events of the past few days. 

I had originally planned to watch the counting of the Electoral College to see just what would transpire with the different Senators and Congressmen/women vowing to object to certain states. I still didn't understand how they could object to states they weren't residents of, and they were only objecting to the presidential race votes. Seems to me if a ballot was fraudulent for that race, it was fraudulent for every race, including local races. But, no-one seemed to understand that.

When the barriers were breached, I called my sister who lives 350 miles away and together we watched in disbelief as more and more protestors stormed the building. Where were the Capitol police? The intelligence agencies had known this was possible for days and had offered help from the federal government, yet to all appearances, it was turned down. As scenes showed windows being broken and doors shattered, my sister and I both grew more horrified. This was not a peaceful protest anymore. This was now a full-blown riot, incited by our President himself.

Some people later just said they were caught up in the moment. Others couldn't believe they were being arrested. I heard one woman say that "I just wanted to hang the flag from the scaffolding!" But, you went behind barriers that were there to protect the building and its occupants.

A fellow blogger I've never met wrote a post to his blog and I've asked if I could share it. I'm only going to quote a little of it here, but I'm including the link to his blog so that you can read the entire post. It says it so much better than I can.

    "...I no longer recognize our country and I no longer recognize some in my own family and many friends who continue to stand by him, too blinded by the lies told to them by Trump and brainwashed by conservative media. You disappoint me for being the easy marks you are...There's a cancer spreading in our society that feeds off of conservative media and is then spread on social media platforms as people give life to the cancer with their lies and easily debunked conspiracies. It has spread to the highest levels of our government. There can be no unity among us until the purveyors of the sustenance the cancer feeds off of stop with the endless drip of lies, conspiracies, fear, and hate that they broadcast. That's the only cure for this but sadly, I don't see that happening. There are billions of dollars to be made off these fools and we're all paying the price for their gullibleness and stupidity."

You can read the entire blog post by clicking here. I'm not sure I've done the link right. It worked for me so hopefully it will work for you.

A couple of things made me feel better when the sessions resumed in the evening. My estimation of Vice-President Pence increased 3000%. He stood up to the President and the others who had been pressuring him to just announce that he was rejecting the entire Electoral College votes and the election. I also admired those is Congress who changed their minds over objecting to the results in the states they were going to protest. 

There has now been some fallout for those protesting in Congress. Josh Hawley from Missouri, who I understand is a presidential hopeful for 2024 has lost a book deal. He is now claiming that his free speech has been violated. Really? No-one has said he can't write the book, Simon and Schuster has just decided not to publish it.

I was also proud of both of my senators, and I don't say that lightly. I mostly disagree with just about everything Tom Cotton says, because he has been one of the President's most ardent supporters. But he and John Boozman both denounced the "protest" and declined to object to the election results. Unfortunately, my representative, Rick Crawford, did not and continued to vote against the results in Pennsylvania.

So many people are afraid of the next four years, saying we're going to be turning into a  Socialist country. Unfortunately I think the hatred and vitriol will continue for awhile. I just keep remembering what Rodney King said after the LA riots "Can't we all just get along?". We all need to remember we are Americans, not Republican or Democrat, but Americans, and we're better than this!