Channeling Michele Obama

Anyone out there remember that absolutely heart-stopping speech Michele Obama gave at the Democratic National Convention the night Hilary Clinton accepted the nomination? It was memorable from beginning to end, but the line that I think has been tattooed on my brain is, “when they go low, we go high.”

I don’t know about you, but that is probably one of the hardest “rules” of a civil society for me to follow. Injustice really pisses me off. So does corruption. Lies and a lack of regard for others really push my buttons and there’s no need for me to go on adding to the list because I’m sure you get where I’m coming from and what I’m getting at.

And once my hot button is pushed it takes everything I’ve got to take a deep breath and pause before I react. I am not always successful. I am getting better, but I am very far from perfect.

But right now, as I am deafened and disturbed by the cacophony of horns being honked by the convoy of truckers surrounding Queen’s Park and University Avenue and all the streets surrounding those areas I am fighting harder than ever to stop those evil thoughts and wishes from filling my brain and spilling over onto my fingertips and into my mouth — so I can avoid telling these ignorant, selfish individuals what I really think of them and what I really wish for them.

I am a huge believer in freedom and rights. My closest friend doesn’t call me Fransi vigilante for nothing. And I do always try (pretty successfully actually) to listen to all sides, even if I disagree with them. But hard as I try I cannot accept that when millions of innocent people worldwide (and very close to a million in the US alone) have died needlessly from a vicious and relentless virus — and we have the tools to fight it — that anyone has the right to refuse a vaccine or wear a mask.

That’s how I feel and I make no apologizes for it.

But what is even worse, even more infuriating, even more unacceptable is that these people — who don’t trust doctors or science and listen only to conspiracy theories — run to the hospital begging for help the minute they become infected with Covid — fully expecting to be treated. Even though their illness could have been prevented, if not for their willful refusal to do the right thing.

And still worse is the sad fact that there are so many of them and the hospitals are so swamped, so short of supplies and resources, that everyone else who finds themselves in desperate need of medical care, for any other condition, can’t get it!

People who did the right thing, who got the vaccine and got boosted and wear masks and stay distanced and use hand sanitizer and, and, and. They’re being denied critical surgery. They’re being denied life saving treatments like chemotherapy.

Really?

How is that right? How is that just? How does that make the slightest bit of sense? That the very people who have caused the crisis in the first place are taking priority over the rest of us.

Why are they being admitted to hospitals? Why are they being treated? Why have they completely taken over ICUs? Why? While the rest of us could lose our lives because the heart surgery we need, or the stents we need, or the transplants we need to remain alive are being cancelled for lack of everything — because every available resource — human and otherwise — is being used on these ingrates.

Yeah, yeah, I know, the Hippocratic oath. But where’s the Hippocratic oath when a doctor has to tell a patient scheduled for a mastectomy that it’s been cancelled because the hospital is just overwhelmed with anti-everythings who have Covid. Or how about when that same doctor has to look her husband in the eye after she dies because she didn’t get her surgery or her treatment on time? Where’s the Hippocratic oath then?

This is hard enough to deal with in the abstract. But it’s starting to get personal. I know people who are being impacted. So you know what I want to shout right now to those truckers who are within spitting distance of where I live. You know what I want to post on Facebook.

But I’m trying to channel Michele Obama. How am I doing?

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