On the High Holy Days of Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur, We, the Jews, recite Unetanneh Tokef, a liturgical poem that has been around from at least the 8th century, if not earlier. In other words, Jewishly speaking, the concept's got legs.
All mankind will pass before You like a flock of sheep.Like a shepherd pasturing his flock, making sheep pass under his staff, so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living; and You shall apportion the destinies of all Your creatures and inscribe their verdict.On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed –how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created;who will live and who will die;who will die after a long life and who before his time;who by water and who by fire,who by sword and who by beast,who by famine and who by thirst,who by upheaval and who by plague,who by strangling and who by stoning.Who will rest and who will wander,who will live in harmony and who will be harried,who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer,who will be impoverished and who will be enriched,who will be degraded and who will be exalted.But Repentance, Prayer, and Charity annul the severity of the Decree.
My Grandma Bessie used to whisper Unetanmeh Tokef lest she accidentally put a magish (hex) on someone. Even Ziggy took this one especially seriously. (But that's a story for another day.) As for me, I am terrified every time I recite it during the liturgy. It's seriously scary stuff. Outside of the High Holy Days, I avoid thinking about Unetaneh Tokef. By the time the Gates of Heaven are almost closed at the end of Yom Kippur's Neilah service, I am ready to put the terror aside and go on with living.
Who by upheaval and who by plague?
Recently, some of We, the People, have concluded that their freedom to infect outweighs others' freedom to live. It's okay to pretty much spit on other people even though you don't know if you're a corona virus carrier or not. These people are angry because the government is telling them what they can and cannot do with their own bodies.
Um...welcome to having a vagina. People do it to us all the time. All you fine people have no problem insisting the government legislate what to do with our bodies, so why can't the government tell you?
The difference is, we're not talking about an embryo here, we're talking about the public arena. This isn't some big philosophical debate. This is about being served by others. Mani-pedis are not an end-of-life decisions. Getting a haircut is not a live-or-die scenario, neither is getting your hair colored. Drinking in a crowded bar is not on the same necessity plane as breathing.
The above mentioned are all choices. Breathing is not.
People who want face-to-face, skin-to-skin contact with strangers who, like them, may be totally asymptomatic but highly contagious and capable of spreading COVID-19 apparently are unaware of the consequences. This is what entitlement looks like: people expecting other people to be okay with dying because they are, fundamentally, servants.
Who by upheaval and who by plague?
 |
| Apparently blue lives do not matter. Credit: Getty images |
Um...welcome to having a vagina. People do it to us all the time. All you fine people have no problem insisting the government legislate what to do with our bodies, so why can't the government tell you?
The difference is, we're not talking about an embryo here, we're talking about the public arena. This isn't some big philosophical debate. This is about being served by others. Mani-pedis are not an end-of-life decisions. Getting a haircut is not a live-or-die scenario, neither is getting your hair colored. Drinking in a crowded bar is not on the same necessity plane as breathing.
The above mentioned are all choices. Breathing is not.
People who want face-to-face, skin-to-skin contact with strangers who, like them, may be totally asymptomatic but highly contagious and capable of spreading COVID-19 apparently are unaware of the consequences. This is what entitlement looks like: people expecting other people to be okay with dying because they are, fundamentally, servants.
A sign at the demonstration outside the Michigan capital building read:
"Tyrants get the rope."
Tyrants don't legislate in the interest in the public good. They don't tell you to stay home so you won't pick up corona virus. Tyrants don't do that sort of thing. No. They legislate to benefit themselves and their cronies. But we're not talking about that right now.
Part of the deceptively low numbers of confirmed COVID-19 infections are due to the lack of testing capability. That's changing. The number of confirmed cases will, obviously, rise dramatically....but watch for the spikes over the next 2-3 weeks. See where they are happening. Watch states like Michigan and Georgia.
Like I always say, you can't fix stupid. Nor can you fully grok Darwinism until you manage to come around to the axiom,
Survival of the fittest really means the demise of the dumbest.
Who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer?
The protesters are considering the bigger picture. They don't seem to understand that regardless of what they think, say, or feel, people will get sick and die. They claim they understand this and can live with that reality, but the really important question is not being posed to them:
Can you name two or three people you are willing to let die
for the sake of getting your hair cut?
Not exactly Sarah Palin's version of death panels, is it? You remember those, where the GOP insisted the ACA would have death panels to decide who got treatment? Well, that never happened. No. Now we have a pandemic for that...and those death panels are turning out to be less about ventilators and more about assholes who don't understand social distancing and lockdowns are about saving lives. No, they think it's about trampling on their right to get their bangs frosted.
Isn't that really the core issue here? Who are you willing to let walk over the rainbow bridge because you are choosing to ignore what we already know to be successful prevention in a pandemic?
The New York Times ran a devastating article about non-medical hospital workers, the lowest paid on the staff, who interact with staff, patients, and visitors and were never provided adequate protective gear. They are dying at a high rate. Do the protestors think this is an okay trade-off?
Those who protest at state capitals across the country are not protesting to save lives or even really to save jobs. They are protesting because they can't have a good time. Is that really who we are....or worse, who we have become?
 |
| Grandma Bessie 1900-1977 |
Grandma Bessie, born in 1900 lived through pogroms, the Spanish Flu pandemic, World War I, The Great Depression, World War II and the Holocaust, the birth of the State of Israel, the polio epidemic, the anti-war movement, the Kent State Massacre (50 years ago today,) and me getting married to Ziggy. She traveled by horse carts, trains, ocean steamer, trollies, trams, subways, cars, airplanes, and even saw a man walk on the moon. I cannot see how she, or anyone else from that generation, would see social distancing as a hardship when it means saving lives.
I also suspect none of this selfish behavior is surprising. We, the People, elected someone like that to the highest office of the land. It should not be a shock that his cabal behaves that way. One can only hope the disease hits close enough to home for all of them. Only then will affordable health access and responsible social behavior become real-life issues for them.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Remember ROMPER ROOM?
Do Bee a good citizen and friend to all...
stand 6-feet apart.
Don't Bee a total asshole and get in people's faces
even with a mask on
AMEN! 10,000 times!
ReplyDeleteLove the bees!
ReplyDeleteOMG! Romper Room. There's a memory. LOL
ReplyDeleteOne other thing that Grandma Bessie would remember was infection parties for chicken pox and measles before there were vaccines available. I'm not putting Covid-19 in that same category, G*d forbid. However, that does seems to be the current thinking in some places; keep the vulnerable populations sheltered and get everyone else out there, albeit gradually, so there's a hope of herd immunity for those that survive. Makes my hair stand on end. No mean feat at the moment!