Okay, it’s time for me to be truthful on social media. Not that I usually lie, but this subject matter deserves a blunt, forward looking approach.
What’s on my mind? COVID. I’ve had enough. Thankfully I’m 66, so I’ve had both Pfizer shots and am good to go. But the world clearly isn’t ready for me yet. The airlines are ready, or so they think. Our younger population is ready, since they’ve been traveling throughout the pandemic and only wearing a mask when it’s a requirement. But to be truthful (there’s that honesty thing again), the overwhelming bulk of people who have been vaccinated are “people of age”. And for the many millions of us fortunate to still be alive and healthy enough to travel, we want to break out of our collective cocoon and travel!
Unfortunately, it isn’t going to be that easy because too many people (aka covidiots) refuse to cooperate with what we all know is the smart way to behave. While I’ve been vaccinated, I still wear a mask when out in public so that I don’t help the virus infect others. I’ve taken one trip by air in the last year, and that was to attend a funeral of a close family member. I flew Delta knowing that the seat adjacent to me would be unoccupied, and all went well. But should we really be packing ourselves into aircraft already when COVID is surging again in many parts of the country?
Let’s face it. Americans are probably the most selfish people on the planet. It’s all about freedom. You can’t tell me what to do. I feel fine, so I’m going to do what I want, and the God-awful government can’t tell me what I can and can’t do. So what if 550,000 Americans have died so far? They were mostly old people and I feel fine. I need to partyyyyyy!!! And there is no way I’m going to take any of those Fauci recommended vaccines. Who really knows what can happen to you if you do? The government is surely lying to us about the safety of the multiple vaccines that are being put into arms of my fellow citizens.
The truth be told (again), if Americans as a whole were so smart, we would have hunkered down months ago, accepted a lockdown or two, and the pandemic might possibly be behind us today. Take a look at New Zealand, Vietnam and South Korea. Sadly, these on-again, off-again virus waves will continue until we get vaccinated and play by the rules.
Back to me. I’m five months out from the third try at a trip to Vienna and Salzburg to find my wife’s Austrian roots, and to hike in the Dolomites of northern Italy. I’m more than ready to go, but I, and we, all need to cooperate so we can get beyond the U.S. borders. So, what do you say? And of course, I’m rooting for the EU to get their vaccination act together very soon.
iflyMSP 