In defense of my friends who are Anti-Vaxxers



It's March of 2021, I live in Arizona, and I will be getting my second COVID-19 shot very soon. I've been reading how wonderfully effective the vaccines are, and doing this just goes into my list of what I call "living forever". And as much as I'd like my friends to do all of the same things that I do, like exercise every day, keep their weight down, eat their veggies, do daily stretching, avoid junk food, floss, see their dentist, take their meds, I know that they won't do all of these things, and I'm OK with that. I'm a little saddened, but I respect their decisions.

This morning I saw the regular group that meets in the parking lot of the McDonalds where I get my coffee. They actually set up a little folding table there, next to the truck of the leader of the group, and even include little traffic cones so people don't accidentally drive into them. Their group is from the 55+ trailer park (oops, I mean mobile home community) that's right nearby. This group tends to be on the higher end, mostly 70s and 80s, and I always stop by to say hello, and today they were eating doughnuts. Can you imagine what that will do to their health, especially their teeth? And oh yeah, they're all Anti-Vaxxers, and although I'm not an Anti-Vaxxer myself, I really do defend their right to choose for themselves.

From what I can tell by looking at them, it looks like a severe case of the flu, especially something as nasty as COVID-19, would be the end of them. And even building up the antibodies after a flu shot seems like would be horrific for them. And they aren't harming anyone, they're just sitting there, eating their doughnuts. They're good about wearing a mask when they go into the McDonald's, and I really have no worries for the people in the future who will be immunized and come in brief contact with them.

I like these people, and if I could wave a magic wand, the next time I saw them they would have gotten their COVID-19 shots, be eating plain non-fat yogurt, doing Tai Chi, and maybe even sweatin' to the oldies, but I know that isn't going to happen. Why I feel an emotional urge to protect them is something that I've been thinking about today, and I think that I'm beginning to understand.

Doing the kind of things to protect yourself and your community is what has made the human race such a successful species. We are, ultimately, social animals, who band together, protecting the sick and weak, the old and the young. And this spirit can be wonderful to see, as an expression of love for the people we care about. But a fortress of love can all too easily become a prison, and freedom is a wonderful thing.

If you're reading this, I care about you, and I would love for you to get your vaccines, all of them. But if you choose not to, and you keep yourself away from people who do want to live a long and healthy life, I defend you.

Go in peace.

Goodbye my friend,
The stars wait for me.
Who knows where we shall meet again, if ever.
But time keeps flowing,
Like a river,
To the sea.
If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more