America has 5% of the world’s population.
America has 30% of the world’s COVID cases and deaths due to COVID.
I’ll bet that makes us Number One in that dubious category.
Crazy people continue to hound public servants nationwide because those public servants—from school board members to governors—are trying to do what they believe is right, and best, for the rest of us. They are trying to make decisions around what is best for the public good and they are acting on what we know now about a virus that is relatively new to us as a species.
Governors, school boards, mayors and business leaders (at least the science-minded, practically-inclined and liberals) are merely attempting to minimize the risk for the greatest number of people by asking them to get vaccinated, wear masks where appropriate and where it makes the most sense.
You’d think the government mandated a smoking ban in public spaces!
Or the wearing of seatbelts.
Or strapping children into baby carriers when transporting them in a car.
Or requiring shoes to be removed and getting a full body x-ray in order to get on a plane. (Thank goodness the nitwit didn’t hide the bomb in his underwear!)
Or requiring sneeze barriers over salad bars.
Or being asked to carry a license with them when driving. Or a passport when entering a foreign country.
Or a kajillion other things!
When we talk about ‘expedition travel’ etiquette on river trips, we do so as a way to introduce newcomers to the idea we are all at the mercy of one another’s judgement when we are out in the back-country hours away from medical and professional help. If you choose to take careless—oft times stupid, unnecessary risks—you’re putting the entire party in jeopardy. We also preach self-rescue—meaning, when the shit hits the fan—your priority is your own well-being over everybody else until you’re back in control of your own safety.
Your ‘freedoms’ should be exercised to extricate yourself from danger but mustn’t be exercised in such a fashion they put the expedition in harm’s way. In other words, you can be a cowboy to save yourself but then you need to get back on board and start looking out for the rest of your fellow travelers.
It’s easier to see the need to be group-minded under expedition circumstances. You’re not in the front country where ambulances are at your beck and call. Resources, of all kinds, are limited. The success of the expedition is dependent on the group members being both independent and interdependent. When you are out in the boondocks, the weakest link becomes the person least able to grasp this concept.
You may not have noticed but the earth is a closed system. Technically, we’re all on an expedition on our one and only planet as it hurtles through space. This is the only habitable planet we are aware of and it is incumbent on homo sapiens (supposedly ‘wise man’) to behave like it is our sole option. Because, of course, it is.
(Anybody other than me imagine that Mars might have been like earth at one time and then crazy people took over the asylum and drove it into its current hellscape?)
Some of us seem not to be aware that there is no Planet B. Some of us seem to think our fragile egos and freedoms are vastly more important than the welfare of the planet, others and other species. Unfortunately, some of the some of us are super-wealthy, pig-headed, short-sighted and divorced from the notion of egalitarianism. These same beings take advantage of The Commons to enrich themselves without much thought as to how it might effect every other animate object on the planet.
We seem to have genetically forgotten that homo sapiens won out over Homo Heidelbergensis, Homo Rudolfensis, Homo Habilis, Homo Floresiensis, Homo Erectus, and Homo Neanderthalensis because of our propensity to band together to defeat whatever challenge lay before us. (Someone should study whether The Former Dude’s supporters, QAnon nitwits, Ivermectin swiggers and Republicans in general have more than their fair share of Neanderthal DNA. Maybe it will account for their bellicose, ‘it’s all about me’ nature.)
Since I’ve been a river guide for decades—and it’s the only expertise I really have—I have another river analogy for you.
When I raft unknown rivers, or when I raft a river that presents substantial challenges, I’ll take the opportunity to scout whenever possible. Check out what’s around the bend or over the horizon line. I’ve learned to scout from ‘the bottom up’—meaning I need to know the path I choose initially will lead me to the best outcome at the tail end.
Those of us who instruct the reading of rivers, rapids and whitewater have a plethora of witty and descriptive sayings that we spout repeatedly. Like, you should expect “No battle plan to survive contact with the enemy”. Or “Rig for a flip.” Or “There are many paths to enlightenment”.
There are often many paths, or at least more than one path, through a whitewater dilemma. Sometimes one path is no better than the other. Quite often, however, one path provides “the path of least resistance”. In other words, one path—which may not be the most exciting path—is the option that presents the least number of challenges or obstacles and the better odds of success. If you’re rowing the boat with everybody’s expensive stuff, sleeping accoutrements, food for the entire expedition and the only fresh, potable water you’re likely to see for days, you’re tasked with finding the path of least resistance. You’re not out looking for a challenge.
Those who refuse to be vaccinated for personal or political reasons are worsening the odds for all of us and unnecessarily overtaxing our ramshackle health care ‘system’. The “few”—nowhere close to the “silent majority” they’d like to think they are, which wasn’t a majority the first time around either—have deemed their superstitions, beliefs and ‘freedom’ supersedes the welfare of the many. It’s unconscionable that the “greatest nation on earth”—the wealthiest society to ever grace the planet—could flounder so miserably at conducting itself in a civil manner over public health.
There is no silver bullet for the pandemic. We’re all living an odds game. I prefer the best odds possible—the path of least resistance—so I will mask up when necessary, when I’m asked and when it’s appropriate. I’ll avoid crowded public indoor places. I’ll be scrupulous about washing my hands. I’ll get a booster shot when it’s available. I’m doing this for myself, for the people I love and for the world at-large.
I’m a patriot after all. As well as a professional at recognizing and minimizing risks as a means of staying alive while flinging myself down frothing cascades.
I’ll take better odds over worse odds every day of the week and—as my mother would intone—twice on Sundays.
“It’s almost like the plague!” Understatement of the year.
“They shafted my president!” So, this nimrod’s not taking the vaccine to ‘own the libs’.
“I don’t know if he got the vaccine…” Haha. You’re what’s known as a ‘mark’, my friend.
“I had COVID. I was in the ICU. I took Regeneron and whatever they gave me.” But he doesn’t want to take the vaccine because…See Above.
Also,