Not long ago there was a group now known as the Greatest Generation. This group featured men who lied about their age to go to war. Let that sink in: They lied for the opportunity to live in foxholes, get shot at and bombed and potentially die, to go across the sea to fight for strangers half a world away.
The women of that group were no less heroic. While the men were gone, they rolled up their sleeves and did the dirty work back home, working in the factories to produce the materiel the men would need to defeat fascism. That is, if they weren't overseas in some sort of war capacity themselves.
Now? A mere generation or two later we've evolved from a nation of heroes who volunteer to die to one of selfish cowards who won't put up with minor inconveniences to help their at-risk family, friends, neighbors and co-workers, a me-first nation, where the greater good of society takes a back seat to the self. One where doing the right thing requires bribes and incentives. Wear a mask? Pffft. It infringes on their "freedom," they cry, an irony that's lost on them — and a slap in the face to the Greatest Generation, those who are still alive now being most at risk from COVID. Get a vaccine? Hardly.
Have you ever noticed the legalese, the fine print at the end of drug ads? Where the list of side effects is longer than the ad itself? Where one of the potential side effects is often death? Does that deter you from taking drugs that cure you, make your life better? If not, why not? Do you really think the folks who came up with the vaccine had just been sitting around the lab all these years, playing cards and watching TV, waiting for a pandemic to break out? Or do you think they might have been working on various vaccines and other drugs all these years? That maybe their life's work had them prepared for such a time? That just maybe they knew what they were doing?
As the son of a World War II pilot and an Air Force veteran myself, I'm embarrassed for our society. You anti-vax COVID deniers should all be ashamed. Truly pathetic.
John Morgan, Burnsville
VIRUS ORIGINS
The administration's on it
Absurdly, the GOP claims the current administration is failing to press for the source of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has caused the pandemic, when the Trump administration disbanded the federal team that oversaw potential viral hot spots, removed scientists collaborating with the Chinese on these issues and denied the reality of the pandemic for months allowing the virus to spread ("Biden focuses on origin of virus," May 27). It is crucial to find the source of the virus, and I applaud the Biden administration for working to do so. The source is likely wildlife and human exposure and transmission is due to wildlife markets and the pet trade where billions of animals, including fish and birds, are wrested from their habitats leading to the decimation of many species. These activities must end to prevent future pandemics and extinctions. GOP hypocrisy and duplicity also must end. Is there a vaccine for that?
Catherine Zimmer, St. Paul