Be Patriotic, Get Vaccinated
To the editor:
This past Memorial Day we honored the patriotic acts of our brave men and women in the military with parades and celebrations and proud displays of the American flag. But there is a far more genuine way to honor our military by our own act of patriotism during a pandemic that is still causing the death of far too many Americans especially in Texas and California. Many ask why now that the vaccine is very accessible and free that Fayette County (and Texas for that matter) is still far short of achieving the 75% vaccination rate needed to attain herd immunity and end this pandemic despite the proven safety and effectiveness of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. The answer is that in particularly rural areas most people want to be part of the “tribe” to survive and thrive and that “tribe” in rural areas like Fayette County is dominated by extreme right wing Republicans who blindly believe in their selfprofessed “Chosen One” Donald Trump. These are the same type of right wingers who juxtaposed “Jesus 2020” and “Trump 2020” signs of the same color and size and design as side by side campaign yard posters last November despite the numerous “Anti-Christ” comparisons to Trump one finds in the Bible. That type of right wing ideological activism is neither patriotic nor Christian and will only increase the likelihood of another Civil War and the treacherous acts of the January 6 storming of the halls of Congress by these kind of right wing extremists are a grave precursor of that Civil War.
Having been brainwashed by Fox Cable News Talking Heads for decades now as their primary source of misinformation, these right wing dominated small town “tribes” also deny the irrefutable science of man-made climate change that our own military establishment acknowledges, if not addressed soon, will only lead to more pandemics, famine, and war. To further endanger our country and our planet, these right wingers also deny proven basic environmental and medical science by their refusing to support the related need for clean energy and the clean air and water and lasting good paying jobs and the national security and tax savings and energy independence for America that come with it. As a result, they unpatriotically disrespect their own lives and the lives and livelihoods of their fellow Americans by refusing to vaccinate (even though their own “Chosen One” privately took the corona virus vaccine before departing Nixon-like on his last day of office). Almost 600,000 Americans in about one year have died of the coronavirus which is more American dead than in any other war except our own American Civil War and almost half of those coronavirus deaths could have been avoided if Trump had exercised honest and competent and timely leadership. Given that self-destructive and deluded social and political milieu of pervasive small town right wing tribalism, local leaders such as county officials, mayors, school superintendents, sheriffs, and sadly, even doctors, in rural areas often do not have the moral courage to publicly encourage the 75% vaccination rate needed to achieve herd immunity and end the pandemic. The failure of Trump’s followers to vaccinate will only serve to prolong the pandemic and may allow variants to develop in the future that today’s vaccines may not protect against. It is now time for the display of our own renown “small town” patriotism to save the lives of our fellow Americans in this great war against the pandemic by all Americans getting vaccinated now to be able to truly celebrate American freedom by Independence Day. After all, as one respected conservative columnist has recently written, “We’re not asking you to storm the beaches of Iwo Jima; we’re are asking you to walk into a damn CVS.”
John W. Mikus
Fayetteville