Let's get it

Happy Friday from the heat dome, central Kentucky division.  It's in the high 80s here right now, and, wow, is that an improvement over the last couple of days!  

I kid, of course.  If you have loved ones who are living in the broad area affected by this heat wave, make sure to check on them and help them get to a cooling center if they don't have air conditioning.

OK, now my real reason for posting today.  I think I detailed here what a happy occasion it was for my wife and me to finally be able to spend time with our children and their families after all of the adults were vaccinated.  Not only did we have occasion to see everyone who lives here in the area, but our daughter and her family were able to visit for a full week from Colorado in late May.

We all thought that we were in the clear, so to speak, at that point, that vaccinations would continue apace and this COVID thing would be in the rear view mirror.

Not so, as it turns out, not by a long shot.

Thanks to the mutation known as the Delta variant, we're supposed to be back to wearing masks, at least indoors, regardless of vaccination status.  Those who have and have not been vaccinated are becoming infected with the virus, and those who have not received at least one vaccine are often really suffering the effects.

On top of that, kids, meaning those under the age of 18, are getting the virus in far greater numbers than before, and despite so many political leaders and others claiming that kids "can't get it" or some such, it's making a lot of them very sick.

So, naturally, we have governors ordering their states' local leaders and educational administrators NOT to install mask mandates for their cities, counties or school systems.  It appears that some of these governors, who likely have aspirations of running for even higher office, are willing to win the favor of those who price their ability to choose and to indulge their desire for FREEDOM (a word that I'm sick of people throwing around as though they never had it until they could tear off a mask or defy a regulation to get vaccinated) at the expense of the health of some or all of their states' citizens.

Last weekend, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson went on something of an apology tour, as he was among these politicians in banning mask mandates at the local level.  He now says he was mistaken, and apparently courts in his state agreed and overturned his order.  Arkansas remains a challenged state, as do most throughout the southeastern US.

Having an endless tug-of-war about masks is largely pointless of course, just as the lifting of any guidance suggesting it for vaccinated people, as those who were not and were never going to be vaccinated also ceased wearing masks, if they were doing so at all.

This is really simple.

Remember when those of us over 50 were starting school?  There were required vaccinations for the measles, the mumps, polio, rubella (then called German measles) and lots of other dread diseases.  Now, it's in vogue for some to not vaccinate their kids, citing some Facebook study about vaccines causing kids to become autistic and the like.

Once again, personal FREEDOM is cited long and hard in such situations.

But we're in a national health emergency, whether it's declared or not.  When the US was attacked by Japan in 1941 and thus drawn into World War II, people didn't sit around and debate whether able-bodied men and some women would go off to defend our country.  They just DID it.  Asked for nothing in return.

What happened to that attitude?  If something similar happened now, there would be an even division of people who were prepared to do what would be necessary and those who felt their personal and individual freedom was more important.

See what I'm driving at?

If you've gotten the vaccine, don't quit now!  Get your second dose if you've only gotten on!.  Wear your mask when you're inside!  Avoid congregant settings, at least for the moment!  And don't invite trouble!

Now, if you have NOT received at least one dose of vaccine, please schedule yours NOW. And get it!  And get the second dose, if that's what's appropriate.  Stop arguing that you're young and healthy and not at risk and that the vaccine doesn't work and it's unproven and it contains a microchip and blah blah blah....

If you don't, you're being more selfish than you can even imagine, because you won't just risk getting sick yourself, but you'll risk getting EVERYONE around you sick as well.  

I'm tired now, from shaking my head continually as I wrote this.

Do yourself, those you love, and everyone else a favor and GET VACCINATED!