As the rains from Hurricane Ida fell across the Gulf Coast I thought of this moment from THE WEST WING. It has been floating in my brain for the past few weeks for other reasons, but I took the storm as a sign to bring it out. It’s an old joke, but it perfectly summarizes the state we find ourselves in vis-a-vis some in the community who believe they don’t need vaccines because “god will protect them”.
Of course it never hurts to have a great actor like Karl Malden deliver it.
But really I do have to wonder why the religious who claim to not need the vaccine don’t see the vaccine creators as having been “touched by god” to create it. Really, are you that narcissistic to believe only you know the mind and ways of that being you call the all knowing, all powerful? Is it at least possible that he (she) has sent you the solution, but you don’t want to believe it because it came through that art known as science? Their are many who believe science is merely man attempting to understand the mysteries of god. Not my take, but at least it is a rational take that the “god will protect me” squad might want to think about.
When you meet him at the pearly gates and ask why he took you, don’t be surprised when he says he sent you masks and social distancing and finally a vaccine, what more did you want? Then he introduces you to a man of wealth and taste.
“Wealth and Taste. wow. Couldn’t let it go, could ya? well done, my friend
The second season of “The Indian Doctor” on PBS had a smallpox epidemic in a small town in Wales. It even included a religious figure saying that “God will protect me”. Also an English nativist reporter blaming immigrants.
I’ve been trying the boat/pickup/helicopter number on my mother, not sinking in (heh). In one of those weird turns I turned away from her god years ago but the one constant in my life has always been she would not, Here we are: she turned away from her god and worships a false prophet, and I can’t seem to forget every word of the Book of Revelations.