Dear Editor:
In the early ’40s, the U.S. went to war. The country shouldered the burden of rationing, shortages, and even nighttime coastal blackouts with hardly a peep. Our front-line soldiers received virtually unanimous support.
Contrast this to today. We are in a war (with a virus, not troops) that has claimed 750,000 lives and left countless others physically and economically damaged. And yet there are too many people not supportive of the effort to contain and reverse the effects of the pandemic. They don’t have to do much to be supportive, simply roll up sleeve for a couple of minutes and wear a mask when appropriate. They are too selfish to realize that their “freedom” stops at my lungs. They even harass and disrespect today’s front-line soldiers, our health care workers, and physicians.
Worse yet are some clergy, being so egocentric as to insist on having large indoor services. The mantra of “love thy neighbor” has been replaced by that of “infect thy neighbor.”
Even worse is how this has been politicized. The virus does not care if you’re from the Democratic Party or GOP. It does not know red states from blue states. Yet there are state governors whose actions fly in the face of science for the purpose of throwing red meat to their “base.” A man like Gov. Ron DeSantis, of Florida, where over 50,000 of his citizens have died from COVID-19 on his watch, typifies this callous approach.
As we get ready to vaccinate children, let us hope that science and logic rule the day and children do not get sacrificed on the altar of ignorance.
Rick Saunders,
Chincoteague
