COVID 19 AND OUR FUTUE

 

1. I predicted to my 8th grade students more than 40 years ago, that sometime in their lifetimes there would be a pandemic. (A virus would kill millions of people.) I never dreamed I would live to see it come to pass.

2. Diseases are a limiting factor on the populations of living creatures on Planet Earth  Plagues, contagious diseases have ravaged humans throughout history and this pandemic with COVID 19 is just the latest version.  It is the method  the Biosphere has of limiting the numbers of organisms in a particular place so a population  does not exceed available resources. Our current activities on the planet have led to  carbon pollution, species extinction and resources depletion leading to the warming of the planet. The Biosphere has reacted to us as a threat by unleashing this very efficient virus.

3. Those humans choosing to not get the protection of a vaccine are actually doing the planet a favor by killing off more of their own species including possibly themselves. Cold fact.

4. This virus is a very effective killer.  People most fit are more likely to survive, those that have some compromising condition such as old age or a chronic disease are most likely to die.  Darwin called this “survival of the fittest”.  It is the process the Biosphere has used since life began more than 3.8 Billion years ago. We are all experiencing a process that has been going on for ever.

5. Those people in our society who are religiously conservative, particularly Christians and Jews take the Bible literally and as result don’t accept  many ideas of science including the concept of evolution. They are overwhelming oppositional defiant  

when it comes to someone telling them what to do that is outside their belief system. Many of them believe their deity will take care of them and they will be rewarded  with eternal life when they die.

6. Conservative religion, vaccine hesitancy, Republican Party, white supremacy all in the same package.  Why?  My view is that it stems from human history.  The changes wrought  in  the last 50 years have traumatized cultures  the world over. Modern societies with high tech and world wide travel have allowed the patriarchal structures of human existence  to erode so women have moved into positions of power and authority. (U.S. Vice President Harris) If you look at the past leaders of religions, governments, companies, almost every entity that has existed since we were hunting and gathering was led by MEN. Here in the Twenty-first Century, Women are taking over the reins of power and are generally doing a better job than the men have done.  This scares the hell out of people who want the world to stay the same.

7.  I am 81 years old and have a limited time here, but i believe we are seeing a planet-wide revolution that is unstoppable. Men got us here, but women will be taking us into the future.

GOP HAS BECOME GORP

As long as I can remember the Republican party has been called the Grand Old Party---the GOP.

That name is dead. Many of the current crop of Republicans are not "Grand" or "Old" or having a "Party", so let's just call them what they are---the Group Of Radicals Party or GORP.

I am a registered Democrat, but I was born, raised and ran for public office twice in the 1980's as a Bill Scranton Republican. In 1964 he was my hero, but he never stood a chance against Goldwater.

I believe in moderation in all things. I believe in fair play, that the playing field should be  level and everyone should be able to get their best shot. The GORP has come to power because many Americans are scared and do not know what the future will bring. The GORP politicians do not propose solutions to the many issues we face, instead they are full of hollow slogans and often provide  simplistic answers to complex problems.

THESE ARE  SOME OF THE EXTREME POSITIONS TAKEN BY GORP's and SOME of their supporters.

Give everyone guns and we will all be safer.

Black people should not be able to vote or  run for office and certainly are not capable of being President.

Black people, Hispanics, Muslims, foreigners and others who are different,  are all a threat both economically and socially and need to be marginalized.

The Affordable Care Act is socialism.

Stop abortion, contraception and sex education, and  all of society's ills will be solved.

Turn the United States into a "Christian Nation" and God will take care of us.

 "Democracy" is when Christian white people with money should vote and hold office.


Government is a threat to freedom.

Gay people should not have the right to be gay or to marry..

Rich people are more important than anyone else.

Big energy companies need to be protected from zealous regulators who try to limit their profits.

Wall Street Bankers and other corporations should be able to do anything and use any procedure as long as they make money.

Teaching evolution should be outlawed.

Public schools should allow Bible reading, prayer and religious teaching in the classroom.

Tax payers  should pay to send students to private and religious schools.

OBSERVATIONS---

Extremists can gain power, BUT THEY CAN NOT GOVERN.

They can only hold power by using fear, intimidation and violence just like the autocrats in Russia, Eastern Europe, Egypt and the communists running North Korea and China..

World War II was fought to prevent extremists from ruling the world.

Are the extremists in our country a threat to the rest of us?

The GORP now serving in the US House of Representatives is a threat now, because they are willing to destroy the United States as we know it, to further their agendas.  To call them "CRAZY" may be true, but we must not underestimate them.  They are willing to go to extreme ends to reach their goals.

We must remain always vigilant to these people who want to change our way of life and destroy our democratic country.