Opinion: Serious subject, silly talk
It has been an interesting week with the Democrats and the President still bickering on who is to blame for the Coronavirus pandemic. The Dems are saying POTUS dithered in January and February when he should have been responding to the then-pending COVID-19 plague.
The pro-Trump talking heads are showing video clips from January and February of doctors and scientists who said the annual flu outbreak is more dangerous than the Coronavirus. The difference is vaccinations for the flu are common.
Too much time on my hands and the vast portions of information on the Internet has led to the development of a theory. While my timeline is not exact, it sure seems to me that there has been a major news event every couple of decades or so, throughout my lifetime.
It started with the assassination of JFK in November 1963. I have heard it referred to as a loss of innocence. If the dreaded faceless “they,” can kill the president of the United States, in broad daylight at high noon, in the middle of a major America city, are any of us ever going to be truly safe?
In the 1980s, the volcano at Mount St. Helena created the largest landslide in history according to Google.
“The deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways and 185 miles of highway were destroyed,” Google said.
Two decades later the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, were the deadliest attacks on US soil since the Pearl Harbor bombing that launched the United States into World War II, said Google. The highjack planes that struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field killed 2,977 people.
Not long before 9-11, an electrician friend and I were talking during one of our morning breaks. We’d meet outside the Tribune’s backdoor, next door to Boyle Electric. David Boyle and I talked about how something big and bad was brewing. We feared the unrest in the Middle East would most likely be the cause. We agreed our generation had been fortunate by missing the many big disasters our parents endured. On Sept. 11, 2001, that lucky-streak ran out.
Now almost two decades later the COVID-19 Pandemic rears its ugly head not just in The USA, but all around the globe.
A part of me can believe that somewhere in a secure and undisclosed location an evil international cabal has decided to trim the fat off the world population by infecting them with a deadly disease. The fatalities would be the most vulnerable of our citizens. The old, the young, the sick, the poor and the homeless population would be mostly wiped-out and no longer a burden on the planet’s limited resources.
When trying to put faces on the members of this malicious sect, it brings to mind the evil cartoon overlords of my youth. These include the Simpson’s Montgomery Burns, Underdogs, Simon Bar Sinister; and Rocky and Bullwinkle’s, Boris, Natasha and Fearless Leader. Then there is Skeletor from He-Man: Masters of the Universe and Krang from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (I threw that last one in for my cousin Ryan Scott, a big Turtle fan.)
Too much social distancing and quarantining is making me silly. I know this enormous crisis is not a laughing matter, but if I don’t laugh, I am apt to cry a lot!
I realize these are only a few of the tragedies and catastrophes during my lifetime. Another visit to my good friend Google finds an extensive timeline of calamities. The closer to the present day the list gets the more detailed inserts of smaller tragedies are included.
There have been hard times before and if our government officials will act like leaders and not squabble like children, we shall come through these hard times too.
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Long days and pleasant nights, have a good weekend.
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Readers may contact Tami Jo Nix by emailing tamijonix@gmail.com or following @TamiJoNix on Twitter.
