For all the insanity, idiocy, and violence spewing from the God Emperor of the Republican Party, the craziest is the plan to bring back 19th Century life expectancy. I've never been able to understand the anti-vax delusion. It has existed since Jenner first discovered vaccination for smallpox, which, in case you didn't know it, ultimately resulted in the extermination of smallpox from the earth. In the 1950s, polio terrorized the nation and the world and Jonas Salk, who developed the first effective polio vaccine, became one of the greatest heroes of the age.
If you're much younger than me, you don't know what it was like to grow up with many of your classmates crippled by polio. People who were partially paralyzed were everywhere. My aunt had polio and couldn't raise her arms over her head. FDR, as you must know, couldn't walk because of polio. My Ph.D. mentor, Irving Kenneth Zola, walked with great difficulty using braces and canes, and often had ot use a wheelchair. They were, at least, lucky enough to be able to breathe.
Rubella, also known as German measles, caused devastating birth defects. We had institutions full of people with profound intellectual disabilities because of Rubella. Most people got through mumps and measles, but some ended up sterile, or brain damaged, or dead. Diphtheria and tetanus killed people as well. The very suggestion that the lunatic Robert Kennedy Jr. would be allowed within 1,000 light years of making public health policy is horrifying. But that's a promise that half of the voters are telling pollsters they want to see kept. We are descending into madness.
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"Democracy, anarchy, tyranny." That is what my best teacher ever, Dorothy Coveney, used to make us repeat as a class -- out loud -- in 10th grade European studies, so we would get it through our heads that that is the inevitable progression in democratic countries. She helped me and others develop critical thinking skills. She was the only teacher I had throughout public school (over the course of 12 years) who helped me in that way.
We will know after Tuesday if Miss Coveney is correct in this case. After much reading, thinking and searching, I am confident Kamala Harris will be our next president. But she is going to have a hell of a lot on her hands if the right-wing crazies and Fucks Propaganda Network are allowed to keep spewing.
We need to teach critical, thinking skills, and people need to be held accountable for their actions. I know exactly whom to start with.
PS: For starters, we need to teach much of the country's supposed grown-ups that TV is not reality. We also need to regulate social media, and it wouldn't be the worst idea to ban its use for minors.
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