I was thinking the other day about the Coronavirus. 

You may have heard something about this, its been in the news some lately. 


***********
Anyway, at the time I was born the big epidemic was polio meningitis. 

At it's peak in 1952, there were 58,000 cases in the U.S. - with over 3,000 deaths that year. 

When most people contract the poliovirus they just experience flu-like symptoms, if any, and get over it in a week or so. But if it crosses over into the meninges you are various levels of seriously screwed. 

There were cases of polio in my neighborhood. One neighbor, a dentist, had caught it from a patient and his arms hung limp and useless at his sides. I remember he had a specially modified car that he could steer with his foot. He gave a bunch of us kids a ride in it once. Kinda cool - sorta - in a way - kinda. 

Dr. Jonas Salk developed the vaccine for polio in 1953, it was introduced in 1955 and became widely available by 1957. The oral version was introduced in 1962. 

According to the CDC, the U.S. has been polio-free since 1979. It's still in some places in the world - but not here. 


***********
I mentioned before about Cassandra in ancient Greek mythology who was blessed by the gods with the ability to foresee the future - but cursed by the gods in that no one would ever believe her. 

Sometimes I feel like Cassandra, except for two things - I'm not a woman and I can't foresee the future. 

My only "super power" is the common sense the good Lord gave me - which, for some reason, seems to put me way ahead of most other people :-) 

So anyway, I'm going to make a prediction. 

I predict we're all going to die from this Coronavirus. 

Oh, maybe not you younger people - screw you (I mean that in a "nice" way) - just us older folks :-) 


***********
Why? Let me give you the real skivvy. 

My family was traditionally Republican - ever since the Republicans first started. 

My Great-Grand Father used to brag about the fact that he voted for Abraham Lincoln. 

My Dad, as a boy, idolized stories about his hero, Teddy Roosevelt. 

I've got a box full of old campaign buttons for McKinley, Harding, Coolidge ("Keep Cool with Coolidge"), Hoover, Willkie and McNary (who?), Eisenhower ("I Like Ike") and Goldwater ("Au-H2O" Au=gold H2O=water) - even Nixon (where did THAT one come from?). 

But that all came to a screeching halt with Ronald Reagan. 

I don't think most people remember just how radically the "Reagan Revolution" redefined what it meant to be a conservative and a Republican. 

NOBODY in my family is a Republican anymore and I prefer to use the word "traditionalist" rather than "conservative".

Not that we like the Democrats all that much, but no way on the Republicans. Not anymore. 


***********
If I had to sum up the "Reagan Revolution" in one phrase it would be his statement that "Government isn't the solution - it's the problem."

What? 

I could agree with the idea that government can't fix everything, nobody ever said it could - but government is NOT "the problem". 

This radical "Neo-Con" (New Conservative) B.S. is an assault on our very system. 

First off, it's not "THE" government it's "OUR" government. Remember?

We are a nation of free men and women who rule ourselves unlike most of the "s-hole" countries in the rest of the world. 

We have a "... government of the people, by the people, for the people ..." - Abraham Lincoln (the guy my Great-Grand-Daddy voted for.)

Our government is just fine, thank you.

Never mind about the electric light or the cotton gin, our greatest invention is our government itself. 

When you say the Pledge of Allegiance, it's not just "allegiance" to the "flag" you are pledging, it's allegiance "to the Republic for which it stands". Or didn't you ever notice that? 

The "Neo-Cons" don't believe in that! They hate the government. They hate "the Republic for which it stands". 

To them the government is just a beached whale that should be cut up and sold off for its blubber. It's big and bloated and useless. 

In the 1930s our government built the Hoover and Grand Coulee dams, and developed the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Columbia River Basin Project.

In the 1940s our government defeated the Nazis and Japanese in WWII and developed the Atomic and then Hydrogen Bombs - now these might not be "good" things but our government was able to do them.

In the 1950s our government created the Saint Lawrence Seaway making Duluth Minnesota an international sea port even though it's a thousand miles inland - and created the Interstate Highway System - we didn't always have all these freeways everywhere - our government did that. 

In the 1960s our government created the space program giving you a hundred cable channels delivered by satellite. 

And our government landed a man on the moon and returned him safely to the earth - a feat never performed in the history of the world before and not repeated by anybody but us in the 50 years since we first did it. 

Don't tell me our government can't do anything.

So what have it done lately? - Nothing. Not since Reagan.

Socialism? No - but as Americans we expect OUR elected officials to operate OUR government efficiently and effectively on OUR behalf - that's their job - they work for us - that's what they're suppose to be doing. 

Our government is a great engine pulling our country forward. 

But the "Neo-Cons" don't want "good government" - they want "no government". They hate it all. 

That defeatist attitude isn't our traditional viewpoint and it's not the conservatism I was raised to believe in. This is America - we can do anything. 


***********
And that's why we're all going to die - (well, us older folks anyway). 

It's because Republican ideology is convinced that government is incompetent and can't solve anything. 

You can see that in the current response. They knew this was coming since November but did nothing. Even now they are being dragged screaming and kicking into doing something just because people don't like dying. (I know it's the last thing I ever want to do (???) :-)

You can see their dilemma. If they DID effectively contain and stamp out this problem, it would open a whole Pandora's box for them.

If government could fix this, what about all the other problems? What about healthcare, global warming, infrastructure, school shootings, you name it - why are they always doing nothing if they could be doing something? 

They're going to have to fail at this, like they do on everything else, otherwise their ideology might be wrong. 

I don't think they are consciously trying to fail. I think they truly believe that government can't fix anything. So why bother? 

And that's why we're all going to die - (us older folks anyway :-). 


***********
It's not the Coronavirus that's going to kill us - that's just the mechanism - it's the screwed up, fanatical, defeatist, far right radical ideology - that's what's going to kill us. 

"Jesus, forgive me for ever being a Republican" - Joe Scarborough

I guess on the bright side - this should free up a lot of beds in old folks homes so that when we "baby-boomers" eventually need them we'll be able to get into the nicer ones - if we make it that far. 

Oh well, at least I never got polio :-)

I feel like I'm in a bad horror movie.

Mommy, make it stop! 


I guess I'll go spin a record - that always cheers me up :-)

Stay Jazzed!
--Tom Swezey



..........