The Greatest Generation?
The Greatest Generation is the title we have given to the American soldiers and civilians who fought and labored and in many cases died during world war II. They all saw Hilter invade Poland and then Belgium, the Netherlands, and France in 1939/1940 but were still mostly opposed to fighting in another European war. The Great War (WWI) was enough. We were done. We were still deep in the depression. We needed to take care of our own problems at home. And then Pearl Harbor happened and the sleeping giant was awakened. We now saw real threats in the form of Tojo in Japan and Hilter in Germany and we mobilized, volunteered, trained, recycled, manufactured, did without, gave, supported, encouraged, and fought and fought and fought until both aggressor nations’ armies, air forces, and navies were utterly destroyed. In that war 400,000 American soldiers and civilians would give their all, their lives, for the cause.
Today we are fast approaching the 500,000 mark of the number of Americans who have died either directly or indirectly from COVID19, not in a protracted war, but in a single year. We are fighting an invisible enemy that will prove in the end to be deadlier and in some ways more sinister than either Tojo or Hitler, because, unlike those two wartime leaders, it will never go away. It will never be eradicated. Its spread can only be controlled, slowed, managed. And if the last year has taught us anything, it has taught us that as necessary as masks and social distancing are, they will never be enough. The history of the world has taught us one other fact, that herd immunity on a global basis has never occured in the past, and therefore will never occur in the future through natural means. In other words, this pandemic cannot be brought under control by allowing the disease to slowly spread throughout all peoples. And if you imagined for one moment that it could, considering COVID19 kills 2% of its victims, you would be imagining the death of some 125 million people before 80% of the world’s population were immune.
If anything, the enemy we face today is more dangerous that the enemies we faced in 1941-1945 because this enemy is right here, not over there in Europe or in some far flung southern Pacific island. It is right here hiding amongst you and me. Despite that reality, we don’t need to prove that we are greater than the Greatest Generation. Let’s face it. We are not. We do not need to face the privations of that era. We don’t need to stand in front of an opposing army. We just need to do one thing, roll up our sleeve and take a shot in the arm. And yet so many won’t.
Misinformation, ignorance, misunderstanding, fear, lies, conspiracy theories, distrust, and a lack of faith in the science are some of the reasons so many refuse this simple act. They think its too new, too untested, not realizing that mRNA vaccines have been in the research phase for some 30 years. They don’t consider the possibility that it is providential that this pandemic did not occur just a few years ago when this technology was nowhere near ready for what they have been able to do in such a short period of time, to go from the genetic sequencing of this new enemy to delivering a preventative therapy in less than a year. Plus, with this technology, they can “tweak” the strand of mRNA to easily adapt to new strains of the virus as they emerge. You are scared of the tech. I, in contrast, am amazed by the tech.
I have spoken directly with nurses and doctors in the ICU’s who are exhausted after a year of this, who spend each day caring for the dying, who have to tell loved ones over the phone that their dear family member, who was alive and healthy two weeks ago, is gone. They are incredulous and disgusted at those who refuse vaccination because they know that this is the only road to whatever our new normal is going to be.
Recent Comments