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Lena's avatar

Charles - I very much appreciate this essay and know that what you are describing is what we should all hope for and work toward.

I am confident I am not enlightening you on anything here but I want to be specific about one thing:

Both sides of this are not equal. It is not as if we both need our little stories to soothe us at the end of this, convincing us it was OUR side that was right.

My husband and I are both in health care. We have always gladly gotten all vaccines we had to have to work at the hospital and even ones we didn’t have to have.

When the Covid vaccines were first made available though something seemed off. Different. It is too long to go through here and it is ground well tread elsewhere but from health care and medical ethics standpoint, I had grave and growing concerns.

Fast forward to this fall. Mandates came and thank God we were granted exemptions. Certain extended family members were furious with us. We were informed we deserved to lose our jobs and basically be put under house arrest.

Please understand that in my extended family we have business executives, an attorney, several nurses, a doctor, an engineer, a pilot, etc. These are educated people.

This is my point:

If my husband and I had been in control of the pandemic response, everyone would have been provided vaccines AFTER they had been provided a rigorous informed consent. Safety issues would have been investigated thoroughly. Honest reporting would have been done about what we know, what we suspect but do not know, and what we absolutely have no ability to know. We would have progressed with recommendations to prevent infection, not mandates, lockdowns, etc., much like we recommend ways to prevent other infectious diseases. In other words, these people would have been able to do whatever they want, go out or stay home, work or not. They would have been left to decide what was best for you them and their household.

If THEY had gotten their way, people like my husband and I would be left with NO income, NO health insurance, and limited ability to shop. We would have been left unable to leave our homes to do pretty much anything.

I am Christian and therefore I am required to forgive the people who voted for and advocated for my destruction. Because that is what that was.

But it must be understood that our opinions and political viewpoints were NOT “opposite, but equal.”

People who advocate for the destruction of others must be forever seen as capable of doing just that. This was not a case of a misunderstanding or a “we were just trying to save lives” issue. They will move on to the next issue once this one dies down.

In the meantime I will be happy to eat with them and I must love them. But something has changed permanently. I will forever watch them like a hawk. Their instincts are dangerous and they will strike again.

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Man-i's avatar

Nice essay, wonderful thoughts. The problem is there is a predator class out there that wont leave us alone. These organizations aka "the state" are filled with people who wont put family first , or who wont forgive and forget. These groups are hell bent on dominating others. They use weapons of propaganda, blackmail, and fear to divide families and pit different groups in society which otherwise could coexist peacefully , against each other. These groups are relentless. They wont leave us alone. Every day it seems there is a new real or proposed depredation foisted upon us. Eventually the oppression and tyranny will become so great that the society will collapse and everyone will have to pick a side.

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