You’ve all most likely heard the latest virus news that hospital ERs are being overrun by antivaxxers, some of whom have taken horse medicine, or something else such as Tender Vittles to fend off COVID-19.. Let’s see, antivaxxers won’t take an FDA-approved vaccination to prevent COVID-19, but they’ll take equine medicine suggested by Mister Ed, or from a member of another species they heard on Fox News. So what are horses supposed to do when the Walmart pharmacy is all out of their dewormer because the antivaxxers are buying it up to dump in their Slurpees?
A reader of The Voice who commented in last week’s issue obviously, as an infant, chewed off too much lead paint from her crib railing. She wrote the Corona virus is a hoax, but in the next breath claims Dr. Fauci paid for its development in the Wuhan labs with our tax money so Bill Gates could inject it into Big Macs to help finance the child sex slavery market, which in turn pays for the Jewish space lasers that soon will be raining havoc down on all of us, or some such conspiracy-of-dunces theory. She listed interesting health figures that don’t relate to anything, especially to the 650,000-plus COVID-19 deaths in the United States, or to the point she’s trying to make. This reader may want to contact overcrowded hospitals in Kentucky, one of which is at 130% capacity, and assure them it is all a hoax and their doctors and nurses just have overactive imaginations.
It’s unfortunate we haven’t reached herd immunity yet, but all is not lost; judging by the preceding, we’ve reached herd stupidity. I heard a caller on a radio talk show say that one positive outcome of the Delta variant is that it’s getting rid of a lot of stupid people. Culling the herd, so to speak. I suppose that raises the collective I.Q. of Americans.
On a positive (?) note, anti-abortion, pro-life Texans have managed to overturn the abortion laws in their state, thereby putting abortions right back where they belong, in the back alleys and backrooms of sleazy taverns. Wouldn’t it be nice if the right-to-life people cared as much about the children after they’re born? They’re the same individuals who want to cut public aid and food stamps for a 17-year-old mother trying to attend school, work, and raise the child that wasn’t aborted, the child who will grow up fatherless and one day learn that his birth father is actually a family member, or some perverted cretin at the bottom of the food chain. But the pro-lifers figure they did their part and it’s up to the young mother to figure out the rest.
We adopted my son when he was a six-months-old special-needs baby. When he was in Children’s’ Memorial Hospital for his second surgery, he shared a room with a friendly, little, seven-month old boy, Devon. When I’d walk past Devon’s crib bed, he’d smile and pull himself up on the railing to greet me. This little boy had balloons, flowers, and plush toys all over his crib bed. I thought it was wonderful that he was special to someone.
Later, I learned that all the presents and decorations had come from the nursing staff members. Devon wasn’t in the hospital because of his health problem, which could have been controlled at home; he was in for the third time in his short life for “failure to thrive.” His mother was 15. She’d been called to the hospital to learn how to care for Devon to keep fluid from accumulating in his lungs, but was more interested in watching the television, so the nurses disconnected it. This girl’s mother had five other children to care for with no father around. She had a hard enough time trying to figure out how to keep her family off the streets. Neither mother nor grandmother had time for Devon, so he just lay in his crib all day, neglected, while grandma was off to work.
In the hospital, the nurses would take turns sitting with him in a rocking chair. Sadly, once he was out of danger, he’d be sent home. I could hear the anger and sadness in the voice of the nurse who told us Devon’s story when he sat on her lap. He was special to someone, just not his family.
Far be it from me to make any judgment (really?), but what did Devon have to look forward to? Because of his health, he’d never live past his early 20s, even with normal care. With the way he was being treated at home, he’d probably not make it to his first birthday. Thirty-two years later, I still think of him, and others like him. Should he even have come into this world? Then I think about my adopted son who did. I have no answer.
If it appears I’m not being very humorous this week, I’m not. The two aforementioned subjects have only added boggle to my generally boggled mind.
I’ll do better next time, and wear a mask to boot.