I recently blocked a close acquaintance on social media who was giving me grief about wearing a mask. When I denied that I was living in fear he stated that wearing a mask shows that I am intellectually dishonest about it. That I was caving to the "liberal agenda", what ever the fuck that means.
I watched a lot of people die. Usually I'm right there trying to prevent it. I've gotten used to it. It's sad, tragic, poignant, sometimes bittersweet. What tears me up about recent times is how preventable many of these deaths are. About how they avoid preventatives or even treatment because their leaders minimize the threat. About how, too many times, they see how wrong they were when it is too late to do anything but ride it out and hope they survive.
A 99.5% recovery rate is great unless you are one of the 5 in a thousand. And for 245 of that thousand it's gonna be a hard road to travel. And that requires health care. It's not some coin flip between death and some sniffles. And it is going to be rough for the other 750 if they have appendicitis, MVA, MI, stroke, or anything else that needs better care than a clinic visit. Because we're full. My hospital is at 120% capacity right now. We're handling it, but I'm getting tired.
First, I want to thank you; stay with it as long as you can, believe that there are those of us out here 100% in support of the things the medical community is doing and of the things we civilians are told to do. I don't know how long it will be before you read this, as you're insanely busy, but please know that not everyone out here is an idiot. Those people are only the most vocal, and the ones you're most likely to see because they won't protect themselves. But you, better than me, know that.
I heard a few nights ago that people are lying about their relatives and friends dying of covid. If they tell the truth, they're vilified by the left for not enforcing measures; they're vilified on the right because its said covid's not responsible. When the victims - and I mean those who have lost people, not only those who have died - cannot speak the truth about this, the matter is most dire. I can only think this gets worse from there.
As for there being "too many," you're right in that a memorial isn't going to satisfy. There are nearly 3,000 names on the memorial at ground zero. The 200-foot long memorial in Washington for the Vietnam dead has 58,000 names. The American penchant for inscribing names in stone reaches absurdity when the final toll is 800-900 thousand names. In scope, the names don't mean anything. The pictures don't mean anything. We don't learn anything from these things. Time comes when we need to stop inscribing names and start inscribing words of common sense and community ... and mean those words, in the same sense as souls like you, Baron, wear yourself exhausted keeping people alive who haven't the wisdom to do it themselves.
Please forgive my vociferations. I'm bitterly frustrated by this.
No, there are too many.
ReplyDeleteI recently blocked a close acquaintance on social media who was giving me grief about wearing a mask. When I denied that I was living in fear he stated that wearing a mask shows that I am intellectually dishonest about it. That I was caving to the "liberal agenda", what ever the fuck that means.
I watched a lot of people die. Usually I'm right there trying to prevent it. I've gotten used to it. It's sad, tragic, poignant, sometimes bittersweet. What tears me up about recent times is how preventable many of these deaths are. About how they avoid preventatives or even treatment because their leaders minimize the threat. About how, too many times, they see how wrong they were when it is too late to do anything but ride it out and hope they survive.
A 99.5% recovery rate is great unless you are one of the 5 in a thousand. And for 245 of that thousand it's gonna be a hard road to travel. And that requires health care. It's not some coin flip between death and some sniffles. And it is going to be rough for the other 750 if they have appendicitis, MVA, MI, stroke, or anything else that needs better care than a clinic visit. Because we're full. My hospital is at 120% capacity right now. We're handling it, but I'm getting tired.
I'm not living in fear. I'm living in sorrow.
Baron,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I want to thank you; stay with it as long as you can, believe that there are those of us out here 100% in support of the things the medical community is doing and of the things we civilians are told to do. I don't know how long it will be before you read this, as you're insanely busy, but please know that not everyone out here is an idiot. Those people are only the most vocal, and the ones you're most likely to see because they won't protect themselves. But you, better than me, know that.
I heard a few nights ago that people are lying about their relatives and friends dying of covid. If they tell the truth, they're vilified by the left for not enforcing measures; they're vilified on the right because its said covid's not responsible. When the victims - and I mean those who have lost people, not only those who have died - cannot speak the truth about this, the matter is most dire. I can only think this gets worse from there.
As for there being "too many," you're right in that a memorial isn't going to satisfy. There are nearly 3,000 names on the memorial at ground zero. The 200-foot long memorial in Washington for the Vietnam dead has 58,000 names. The American penchant for inscribing names in stone reaches absurdity when the final toll is 800-900 thousand names. In scope, the names don't mean anything. The pictures don't mean anything. We don't learn anything from these things. Time comes when we need to stop inscribing names and start inscribing words of common sense and community ... and mean those words, in the same sense as souls like you, Baron, wear yourself exhausted keeping people alive who haven't the wisdom to do it themselves.
Please forgive my vociferations. I'm bitterly frustrated by this.
No worries Alexis. Thanks.
ReplyDelete