2021: When Pigs Fly
I made room for Covid-19 in my life, or rather, it made room for me. With little work, free time multiplied. My Pandemic workout has been walking in the park or neighborhood while lifting a twenty pound rock. Rock Creek Park is full of beautiful smooth rounded stones; they can be picked up or laid down as needed, but I bring my favorite one home.
I have a very distinct memory of receiving the polio vaccine, probably around 1960, and my life ever since has been a series of vaccines at my doctor’s suggestion or my fire department’s behest. I’m due for the pneumonia shot and the shingles one, as well. I suppose there are potential side effects and adverse reactions to both.
Covid-19 vaccines have been drafted to serve a purpose well beyond the medical having been politico-evangelized, a combination of politics and religion where the taking of medicine is deemed unpatriotic and satanic. Vaccine refusal is both a rejection of reality and a personal statement for many.
It was Father Washington who once said of inoculation in an earlier epidemic, “Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure.”
Second to Covid-19 I was most struck by Afghanistan, not just by the withdrawal but everything about being there. The futility based on history (Britain and the USSR before us), the attempt to introduce democracy into a society dominated by religious tribalism, the corrosive effect of pouring trillions of dollars into a destitute country, the vicious terror of fundamentalist religions, the instantaneous collapse of the Afghan state and military at the end.
It was Vietnam 2.0 where successive U.S. presidents are enthralled by power and conned by military leaders whose job it is to wage war; abetted by politicians whose wish is to remain in office and who vote accordingly.
I continue to be fascinated by Brexit, England’s disastrous decision to leave the European Union, a decision bursting with relevance for Americans. Brits were sold a “bill of goods” (pun intended) that going it alone would result in more economic and other freedoms and that real prosperity and true autonomy was just over the horizon. Reality is a different story with U.K. business owners, large and small, facing record losses in sales and severe worker shortages. The only winner in Brexit is Russia’s Putin who must chuckle at how Europe has been fundamentally weakened. Isolationism will always be a loser and our enemies will love us for it.
Finally, with the first anniversary of The January 6th Insurrection just days away, the unsung heroes of late are the Federal Judiciary who have let the participants know that actions have consequences as one by one they plead guilty, virtually all of them claiming they were brainwashed. If I had a wish it would be to sit in as one of their attorneys explains the odds of being found not guilty by a DC jury; pigs would fly first.
Happy New Year!
