“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy
World War Two was epitomized as being everything a war can be. It was brutal. It was inhumane. And it was tragic on many different levels. Yet the American people not only survived it, they came out of it for the better.
Why? Because they knew what needed to be done and they did it without question.
The people who lived through World War Two are now called our “Greatest Generation,” and it is a title that is richly deserved. They pulled together in a time of unmitigated crisis and they worked together, each doing their part, to defeat a common enemy. Or in this case, a number of common enemies. Some went off to war and some stayed home. Men deemed unsuitable for military service nevertheless kept working at jobs essential to the war front. Women set aside their traditional roles to take up the slack in factories, with some delivering all manner of military aircraft (even fighters) without benefit of “shakedown” trials to bases bound for the European and Pacific theaters. They even risked their lives by helping to train male soldiers by pulling targets behind their planes so they could be shot at to simulate aerial attacks. People everywhere accepted the necessity of rationing for the good of the country. They did what they needed to do to defeat the threat to our country. They remain a shining example of what it means to be “all for one and one for all.”
Today the US is once again under attack. Our enemy is insidious. Its effects are catastrophic. It undermines our relationships and our economy. It threatens our very lives. Yet people aren't choosing to fight this common enemy. They prefer, instead, to betray our society by demanding their individual “rights” to the detriment not only to the country at large but even to themselves. I ask, what “rights” are being jeopardized?
In World War Two, Japanese Americans who had never seen the country of Japan were rounded up indiscriminately and forced into “internment camps.” That's just a nice word for a concentration camp, folks. Still, many young Japanese American men chose to fight for this country in spite of this blatant show of civic discrimination. They fought bravely and with honor. Likewise Native Americans lined up to do their part. Ever hear of the Navajo Code Talkers? Then there were the Tuskegee Airmen and other Black Americans who went to war only to return home to the same soul destroying prejudice that they had endured for generations. They all did this in spite of the fact that THEIR rights were being threatened and decimated by the very same country that they were going to war for.
I'm sorry. The refusal to wear masks and to maintain social distance do not equate to what these brave men and women did for us.
These individuals who choose not to wear masks and who deliberately flaunt their disregard for the advice of those who genuinely know what we're up against are not heroes in my book. They are fools and, unfortunately, they are fools who are endangering us all. But who are the bigger fools? The fools themselves, or those that enable them?
Hitler was "in your face" with his rolling over countries like Poland and commandeering countries like Austria and Norway. A clear and present danger. Even then, the United States people, for the most part, did not want to go to war in Europe like they did in World War I. It was only the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, who had an alliance with Hitler, that turned the tide. Similar to 9/11 causing many young people to go into military service even though beating up on a small country that had little to do with Al Qaeda was the wrong thing to do. People step up when they find that they feel threatened and go to war.
The Coronavirus is different. Scientists still don't know a lot about it. Originally, it was thought that about 2.5% of those who caught the disease would die. Far less than that have according to the data. As far as 3 million being infected, that is less than 1% of the population. To date, of all of my family, friends and acquaintances, only one has told me that someone in their family is infected and suffering. And it's been four months. I believe the media and the government officials, scientists. It is serious and getting worse in many places.
Initially, there was a compliance almost universally until the tragedy of police brutality towards people of color was revealed by citizens with the cell phones. Young people out of school and laid off their jobs, were cooped up and saw what was happening. The time was ripe for anger and distrust to lead to demonstration for a long, swept under the rug, rights. I have read articles recently that police have uncovered violent instigators who have nothing to do with the peaceful demands being requested of the government. They want to see unrest grow and use the protests to hide terrorist acts.
As far as ignorant crowds of people ignoring "the rules." Once again, after a long time being cooped up, holidays, with no virus in sight for them, it becomes party time as usual. It's not a matter of patriotic duty to protect the country. It's a matter of inability to understand the ramification of not taking measures to prevent the spread. In fact, it was only a few years ago that I heard about the famous Spanish flu. And then, I learned that my uncle who suffered from "shell shock," never went to Europe but worked as an Army medic in a North Carolina hospital where he got a dose of the horror of war, compounded by a deadly flu, in 1918.
This is a political treatise that deals with the China issue from a completely new perspective. Disparaging as he may sound, from page to page, toward "the old system" and the Communist Party's various wiles, the author demonstrates his mysteriously
The Coronavirus is different. Scientists still don't know a lot about it. Originally, it was thought that about 2.5% of those who caught the disease would die. Far less than that have according to the data. As far as 3 million being infected, that is less than 1% of the population. To date, of all of my family, friends and acquaintances, only one has told me that someone in their family is infected and suffering. And it's been four months. I believe the media and the government officials, scientists. It is serious and getting worse in many places.
Initially, there was a compliance almost universally until the tragedy of police brutality towards people of color was revealed by citizens with the cell phones. Young people out of school and laid off their jobs, were cooped up and saw what was happening. The time was ripe for anger and distrust to lead to demonstration for a long, swept under the rug, rights. I have read articles recently that police have uncovered violent instigators who have nothing to do with the peaceful demands being requested of the government. They want to see unrest grow and use the protests to hide terrorist acts.
As far as ignorant crowds of people ignoring "the rules." Once again, after a long time being cooped up, holidays, with no virus in sight for them, it becomes party time as usual. It's not a matter of patriotic duty to protect the country. It's a matter of inability to understand the ramification of not taking measures to prevent the spread. In fact, it was only a few years ago that I heard about the famous Spanish flu. And then, I learned that my uncle who suffered from "shell shock," never went to Europe but worked as an Army medic in a North Carolina hospital where he got a dose of the horror of war, compounded by a deadly flu, in 1918.
Ron