June 10, 2021

I want to take a step back in time. Nearly a year ago, I wrote a Facebook post dealing with local attitudes regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

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July 10, 2020

We are the most selfish and spoiled generation. I am disgusted, saddened, angry, but most of all disappointed when I see people flagrantly disregarding the health and safety of their fellow community members and their families and hear the nonsensical garbage they use to justify this reckless behavior. However, the hurt is multiplied ten-fold when it has been made abundantly clear the people who are supposed to protect us, like first responders and our "leaders" (county, state, and federal), do not care about our welfare. Obviously, I am not speaking of all first responders. I know many do the right things to protect their patients and themselves. I sincerely thank them from the bottom of my heart and pray this nightmare will be over soon. You've done incredible work, and I know you won't give up until the job is done.

I am, however, speaking to those I have seen on multiple occasions, whether at a protest or in the grocery store or in a car wash parking lot partying with the locals, refusing to do the bare minimum for your fellow man even when the evidence is staring you in the face. I'm asking you to, please, stop making it even more difficult for the people you call brothers and sisters who work as paramedics, nurses, and doctors.

Like it or not, the cases of coronavirus are rising in the county and around the country every day. It has been in the nursing homes, and it is now in the jail. Just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Ignoring something because it's scary or inconvenient doesn't make the problem go away. If you don't want to believe me, look at the data from Johns Hopkins University, a highly respected and credible institution. Staggering totals that grow worse by the day. This is not "a little flu"; this is not going to "miraculously disappear" as much as we would all wish it to.

Aside from the death rates and asymptomatic spread, the thing that makes this virus so terrifying is how differently it affects each person unfortunate enough to contract it. You don't know if you will have a mild case, end up on a ventilator, or die. So, why would you risk it? Why would you risk your loved ones meeting this fate?

To those who feel there are not enough cases of COVID-19 to require protection, I have questions: when will the lives of the citizens in your care matter to you? What will it take? Does it matter to you that a significant portion of the population is elderly? Does it matter to you that the population has many health issues? These things make people more vulnerable to the coronavirus. Would you be able to sleep at night knowing you passed the virus on to your father with heart problems, aunt that has recently had cancer, cousin that has diabetes and COPD, and they ended up dying? Can you stomach that guilt? Are your shoulders broad enough? At least 18 people have died in this county already. In my opinion, one death is one too many. Are you prepared to answer to God for their lives?

I have been quiet most of my life. Maybe that was a mistake. I can handle a lot, but when the lives of the people I hold most dear are in danger, I fight back. It breaks my heart to see the chosen ignorance/blindness and the lack of regard for the sanctitiy of human life coming from teachers, officers, family members, and friends I used to hold in high regard. I can no longer let this negligence go unaddressed. My cries and pleas may fall on deaf ears that refuse to hear and stone hearts that fail to acknowledge the ugly truth, but I'm taking a stand. I'm saying, "NO"! This is me fighting back.