Just when the enemy is beginning to retreat, some in the nation want to declare victory and stop supporting the war effort. Some entire states are quitting, adding support to the collaborators who have been willing to give aid and comfort to the enemy, the politicians, those more interested in private profit than the health of people, without regard for others in the community.
It is beyond comprehension that we think we can so easily write off this pending war against a nearly invisible, inhuman enemy. This war that has subverted the health of a nation, subverted our economy and subverted our national unity. This war has claimed nearly 30 million casualties and over a half a million deaths within one year in the richest and most powerful nation in the world.
There are those who seem to think that the pandemic will end by simply declaring it safe to stop worrying about it. Do we really think that if we drop rules about masks, distancing and opening schools and businesses, the pandemic will simply stop of its own accord? Do we think it will not feed on the new menu of humans who choose to make themselves, and all the rest of us, newly vulnerable? As though the virus will turn up its nose at all the newly available hosts because some governor or politician said it was now safe to withdraw from the battle.
Perhaps things are improving with the vaccines and the hard work of so many people. Perhaps an end may be in sight. But we need to continue to proceed carefully and responsibly and with a sense of unified effort. It is too early to jump the gun, only to find we have prolonged the war and allowed even more unnecessary death and suffering.
Bob Passi
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Baxter
