A Response to Anonymous

My last post, Your Child's Life, elicitated this response: 

"They (Trump) rushed to produce it. They (Trump) circumvented safety procedures. They (CDC) have not done long term human trials. They (Trump) gave the producers immunity from liability. They (Media) politicized any possible therapeutics. Prior to the 2020 election many Democrats had doubt about the safety of the vaccine too. You buy into the propaganda like sheep. Enjoy being a test subject." 

Dear Mr/Ms Anonymous, thank you for your comment. It allowed me a chance to explore answers for the statements you made. 

Yes, there was a rush to produce the vaccine. Americans were (and still are) dying in record numbers. So "They" (our government) agreed to purchase 100 million doses each of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at a total cost of $2.45 Million, with the option of 500 million more doses of each. This pre-development agreement gave Moderna and Pfizer the ability to invest in the development and production of the vaccine without having to worry about "how marketable will it be?" (Pfizer and Moderna were not paid until the vaccine was delivered.) 

They (the drug companies) were able to build this vaccine on models that had been successfully used for other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS. The technology is not new, what the manufacturers had to figure out was the right mix of mRNA instructions for our immune systems to defeat the virus. In essence, the manufacturers had a 10-year head start on developing this vaccine.  Regarding long-term trials: the vaccine is new, but the delivery system is not. Other vaccines using the same model have not had any severe long-term reactions. 

I've not been able to see where any safety procedures were circumvented, perhaps you can share that information with me? 

The PREP Act you refer to regarding immunity from liability was signed into law in 2005, by President George W. Bush. It is a limited-term immunity; for the Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J vaccines, that immunity expires in 2024.

 The only politicizing about the various therapeutics I have seen or read came from politicians. To the best of my knowledge, the Big 4 Media (ABC, CBS, CNN, MBC) reported on what the politicians or scientists said, but did not take sides on the issue. (I don't watch Fox, so I cannot say what they have or have not done.) 

Anonymous, I think everyone had some concerns about the safety of the vaccine at some point; as more scientific information becomes available, doubts disappear. At least, mine did. 

I don't buy into propaganda; I research, read, challenge, and think. I believe these vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary now. 

Thanks for reading! As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome and appreciated. 

R.M. "Bob" Hartman  

Your Child's Life

 Twenty-five years ago, the chemo that "cured" our son's leukemia took his life. I remember all too well the anguish, pain, and anger I felt then; the emotions I experienced I would never condemn another to suffer. Suffice it to say that I felt I had failed him; as his parent, I was supposed to keep him safe, to prevent bad things from happening to him. In our society, at this time and place, parents are not supposed to bury their children. But, we did.

Which makes it all the more confusing to me; during this deadly pandemic, when science has proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that masks help slow the spread of this killer virus, why parents are "up in arms" when masks in schools are discussed. Why would you not want to protect your children?

Speaking of protection, we have vaccines available for all people 12 years of age or more. So, what is keeping people from getting a pin pick that will save your life, and the lives of those around you? Why would you not have your child vaccinated?

Friends have told me they are afraid of the possibility of a side effect from the vaccine. Let's put this in perspective, shall we? You have a 1 in 200,000 chance of a negative reaction to the vaccines. A 1 in 500 chance of dying from Covid, if you are not vaccinated. You have a 1 in 107 chance of dying in an automobile accident. Yet, you still drive, right? I thought so. To be perfectly honest about it, all of the excuses for not getting vaccinated fall apart under similar scrutiny.

There was not, and still is not, a vaccine to prevent cancer. No mask would have prevented my son's death.

You, however, have a choice. You can have you child wear a mask, and you can have your child vaccinated. You can wear a mask and be vaccinated yourself.

Isn't you child's life worth it?

Thanks for reading, as always your thought and comments are welcome.

RM "Bob" Hartman

Racism and America

 I'm going to talk about racism. I'm doing it from my perspective, a combination of realism and idealism.

The United States of America-America for short- is, and always has been, an ideal. The shining city on the hill we all want to live in. The place where everything is right, perfect, and as it ought to be.

In the early years of our country only white males could vote. Native Americans were slaughtered and survivors forced into settlement on lands deemed of no value by various American administrations. After the transcontinental railroad was completed, the country shunned, deported, and devalued the Chinese labor that built so much of that great American achievement. When we talk about the great industries that became the face of America-steel, transportation, mining, architecture, agriculture- we mention the white males who were captains of those industries, but we fail to have the conversation about the Irish, Greek, German and Mexican immigrants that did the hard, manual, often deadly work of building those industries. Indeed, we often forget to remember that immigration has been a major source of labor, ideas, and innovation in our country. We also conveniently forget the discrimination that was practiced against immigrants of most nationalities at one time or another. As a student in elementary school, I learned that America won WWII, but I didn't learn about 120,000 Japanese-Americans being torn from their homes and placed in internment camps during that same war until after I graduated high school.

America has a long, unhappy history of racism, as shown in the above examples, but our country's major failings regarding racism involve Black Americans. Theoretically freed from slavery by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, Blacks in America were openly discriminated against in housing, jobs, voting, education and public venues; this discrimination was made illegal by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. Human nature does not change with the stroke of a pen, however, and we still have racially based discrimination-blatant, open, and illegal-in America's streets, and on our news feed each day.

This is the reality we are faced with today in the United States of America. I wrote at the beginning of this article that I am also an idealist, so here goes.

Yes, America is not perfect, and our past is marked with many examples of racism, none of which make us proud. But we have learned from each of these challenges, and we have risen, battered perhaps, bruised certainly, but we have risen better than before each time. We live today in an age of right now news and information; the click you just heard was a cell phone taking your picture, or your video. Therefore, we are faced with a national reckoning, an inability to pretend it doesn't happen here.

Can you imagine Benjamin Franklin's face if he saw how rapidly we can spread news today?

It is in our long-term national best interest that we do not whitewash the events of the past, that we do not ignore the parts of our history that are ugly. As a species, we learn from our collective past, and we can use the unsavory parts of our history to guide us to different ways of thinking, of approaching various problems that face us now, and others that will come to us in the future. Our history is checkered with good and bad, and it would be childish to pretend America was innocent, that we never made mistakes. When my grandchildren learn about the Revolutionary war, I also want them to learn about the Trail of Tears and the Selma to Montgomery marches; I want them to understand America has come a long way in the movement toward equality, but that we still have a long way to go.

Critical to the long-term national best interest of our country is our own attitude. We must resist stereotyping, be it political, sexual, or racial; and we must overcome our own attitudes that lend themselves to racism and discrimination. I frequently ask myself, is this how I want to be remembered?

America is, in my opinion, that shining city on the hill. That place where everything can be good, nay, great, if we will only let it be. We are building that city, one ideal at a time; certainly it is hard work, but it will be worth it!

Thanks for reading; your thoughts, comments, and opinions are welcome, as always.

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

Musings from Camp, Part 2

Ok, enough on Covid. Let's talk politics. Yeah, I know, it's one of the three no-no's of polite conversation. But it is one of the areas now in the news on an elevated scale. I'm referring to the 2020 Presidential election. Yeah, that one, where Joe Biden was elected President in the most closed monitored election of our lifetimes. Judges, appointed by presidents of both parties, have dismissed more than sixty lawsuits claiming irregularities or fraud, for lack of evidence. No person or entity has provided proof of election fraud on any scale; and no amount of denial will change the facts. Federal, state and local governments are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on recounts, recounts of recounts, and useless frivolous lawsuits. Taxpayer money-that's your tax dollars at work. So, once again, here are the facts. Not the MSM facts, or the RWM facts, just everybody's facts. Joe Biden was elected President of the United States of America on November 3, 2020. He did not steal the election, he won it. No amount of whining, crying, lying, or misstatement of facts will change the result of the election. Those who claim otherwise are doing significant damage to the integrity of our most sacred principle, the absolute power of free, honest, open elections. For those in elected positions, denying the integrity of the 2020 election is a very sharp double edged sword; if they deny the result of the Presidential election, what is to prevent their own election from being denied? A very slippery slope indeed.

So, again the facts: Joe Biden is president of The United States of America. What are you afraid of?

Thank you for reading, as always, your thoughts, comments, and opinions are welcome! 

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

Musings from Camp, Part 1

As this summer continues to heat up socially, politically, and environmentally, I find myself wondering: Why are so many Americans afraid of the truth?

Let's talk first about the Covid pandemic. Six hundred thousand Americans have died from Covid. 600,000. That figure is more than the total American Military lives lost in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam combined. We have vaccines that work, we know masking and social distancing work. All of the above are FACTS. Cold, hard, dead facts. Yes, our local and state governments issued mask mandates. Masks work. So while the masks were uncomfortable, wearing them slowed the spread of this killer disease, which, when coupled with a vaccine, lowered the risk of being infected by Covid, and greatly reduced the severity of the disease, and reduced the number of people dying from it. Again, people, these are facts.

So how in the name of all that is holy, did this become a political issue? Can someone please explain to me why and how not dying from Covid has anything at all to do with the occupant of the White House? Can you explain, logically, how not spending your last days hooked to a ventilator is taking away your freedom? Can you tell me, truthfully, if your family will be proud of you for dying to prove your political point?

I think I will wait a long time for those answers. While I wait, would you please get vaccinated?

The cold, hard truth is: Vaccines work, masks work, social distancing works. What are you afraid of?

Thanks for reading, your comments are welcome, as always. 

R.M. "Bob" Hartman

Transparency

 Transparency is not a passive word, rather it is a term of action. Looking, from my perspective as a tax paying citizen, at the more egregious examples of police misconduct and racial bias, I am aware of the cost to taxpayers; not only the loss of faith in our public safety officers, but at the financial damage to budgets when legal settlements are reached. It is therefore critical for uniformed officers to be equipped with, and consistently use, body cameras at each and every interaction with the public. The citizens involved, their legal counsel and the press, should be guaranteed unfettered access to the footage upon request, and without delay. If this requires federal law, and federal enforcement, so be it. If a public safety organization will not be transparent willingly, then yes, the federal government should help them make the needed changes.

This is the first, and most crucial, step to transparency. I understand there will be reluctance on the part of some communities to make the necessary expenditures for equipment and training; those costs are minimal compared to the expense of million dollar plus settlements. So, you can kiss that shadow argument goodbye. Next up is the old fallacy that the public doesn't understand policing and law enforcement. No, the public understands that everything public safety officers do should be clean and above-board. Asking the public to believe that police always do right is akin to belief in the tooth fairy. Demanding they accept it is a step towards fascism. If you are afraid of what the footage will show, then don't do it.

Contiguous to the use of body cameras is the modification, or dismissal, of qualified immunity. No one, not even police agencies or individual policemen, are or should be above the law. If an act is illegal for the average citizen, it should be illegal for a policeman, and the penalties for violating the law must be equal. Don't misunderstand or misquote me: the use of deadly force, when required, is part and parcel of police work, but it should always be a last effort, not a first response.

The work of a free democracy requires the people, through their elected representatives, to make laws for the common good. The task of the public safety officers is the equally enforcement of those laws. Transparency in that enforcement is a major factor in the checks and balances required for good government.

So, what can we do to bring about transparency? We can let our elected officials, local and federal, know we support police reform that includes transparency and accountability.

Thank you for reading, as always your comments and opinions are welcome!

RM "Bob" Hartman

Litmus Test

 I remember, as I am sure you do, the litmus test for Supreme Court Justices, how they would vote on abortion; the test then turned to gun control, then gay rights. The republicans decried these tests, at least when democrats would bring them up.

Now the dour faced Republican party has a litmus test of it's own, one that could destroy the party; indeed, it's even now fracturing and splintering as the more vocal members of the party apply it to legally elected members of Congress.

I'm referring, of course, to the Big Lie. It now is apparent to any thinking person that you must swear allegiance to former President Trump's continued falsehood of election fraud, and agree with him that the election was stolen, and that President Joe Biden is not,in fact, the legally elected President of The United States of America, if you want to remain in Congress, or as governor of your state.

How the leaders of a party traditionally based on conservative values-the rule of law, strong military capabilities, unbreakable ties with our allies-can, in a space of 4 years, redefine the party into a cult based upon one man staggers the imagination.

America had never been, even in it's infancy, a cult worshiping one leader. We are a country founded upon the rule of law, and a strong believe the the core value of democracy; that right of the people to decide their leader in free, honest, and open elections.

The great challenges that faced our country during the pandemic forced our state and local officials to explore and expand opportunities for voters to cast their legal ballot, and I truly believe those leaders performed a Herculean task successfully; more Americans cast their ballot than in any preceding election.

Those American voters, and you are most likely one of them, elected Congressmen, Senators, and Governors of both parties to office; indeed, both houses of Congress are more equally balanced than at any time in recent history. And yes, those American voters elected Joe Biden President of The United States of America at the same time.

For the first time in decades, both parties have an equal opportunity to present their policies and values to the public. Both parties have the ability now to entice voters to support them, based upon what their parties can do for America.

Instead of giving Americans ideas and policies that could benefit all of us, the Republicans have chosen to present a party of cult worship.

I don't think this can end well for the party of Lincoln.

Thank you for reading, your thoughts and comments are always welcome!

R.M. "Bob" Hartman