Any time we go into a recession or a depression in this country a great number of people suffer. It isn’t easy to cope when you use a salary or a pay check. In order to cope with the situation the government has invented unemployment insurance. It is simple, you are laid off, you apply, and you receive some money, but it is seldom the same money as what you were bringing home. All along I have thought there is a great inequity being perpetrated on the population. There is a segment that is never affected by any kind of economic slowdown, they are the people who work for the government. The argument is that even though we are no longer working police, fire, and emergency services must be available. That might be true, but what about all the non-essential services like the bureaucrats and government officials who contribute zero to the economy? They live off the taxpayer who is now unemployed and can no longer contribute to their support through income tax.
My proposal to even this out is to make these non-essentials take a pay cut during the slowdown just like their non-governmental counterparts. Maybe, just maybe, this pressure on the government might cause the conditions to change. A policy of this nature might make our politicians more sympathetic towards stupid policies like extending the mandated shut downs of businesses to control fake viruses like the COVID-19. Think about a Congressman or Senator getting his pay cut. Any crisis that could be solved by the government would get some serious attention.
In the beginning of the virus I agreed with the shut down. Now that we have more information about it I am totally in favor of opening all businesses, schools, churches, and public gatherings. Why? Because we now know that the virus is not the killer it was being painted to be. In the beginning we had no tests to determine if we had the virus, now we do, and the number of cases keeps growing as more people are tested, but the death rate is still low, and the hospitals can still handle things.
Some will argue with me that I am a heartless cruel being. That I am a proponent of killing off the older people in the crowd. Frankly, have you seen some of the people we lose all sanity over by keeping them alive? Age wise, I am one of them. I have personally cared for two wives who were in the vulnerable age group. Both could have benefited by a earlier death. My first love, Barbara suffered a heart attack that should have killed her, but science and medicine saved her. I was grateful to still have her. The quality of her life after her release from the hospital was about a one on a scale of one to ten with ten being the best life ever. The complications she lived with for the next two years were many and terrible, but her desire to live out weighed her suffering. Ultimately she realized the life she lived was not worth the effort. One week after she pulled the plug on herself she died. The second wife lived a downhill road with Alzheimer’s. She began losing her memory in 2014, and finally died in 2019 after five years of continuous deterioration. She couldn’t speak, walk, or take care of herself, nor did it bother her to be that way. At the end her body began the downhill slide when her skin deteriorated and she was decaying, but still breathing, and taking some fluids. It wasn’t pretty. Do I sound pathetic? Yes, I do. I loved these women and went out of my way to keep them alive to be with me. I missed them when they finally passed, but death was a gift to them.
I have told this story because I have seen people in nursing homes hanging on but not enjoying life anymore. They suffer but enjoy it. Some of them see it religiously, they suffer because God wants them to. Without suffering they won’t get into heaven.
My current attitude about COVID-19 is that if I get it, so what? Maybe I’ll survive, but if I don’t it is because it is my time to leave earth. I believe that any time man screws with nature as they do with modern medicine we lose something. You will argue with me that modern medicine has extended our life span. Yes, maybe it has, but modern medicine still has a ton of work to do to cure all the diseases that cause death. Each one gets more complicated and expensive to undergo a cure. New diseases are identified everyday, and the job to cure them is monumental. Modern medicine will struggle with saving people with or without COVID.
In the meantime, I will take some precautions to avoid situations that may compromise my health. I will continue to wear a mask in public places where people are close together. It won’t be for my protection it will be for yours. I will use common sense to deal with COVID. I no longer need daily press conference to tell me what is being done to protect me. I read the daily statistics and become confused as to what they mean, therefore I quit looking. The bottom line is that the virus is out there, people will get it, some will get sick, some will die, but the planet will survive. In other words, it is time to use your common sense to guide your life.
Filed under: Aging, Biography, family, Government, health care | Tagged: Alzheimer's, Common Sense, Covid-19, Heart Disease | 2 Comments »
