X-mas Reflections of a Santa Elf

     Pre-Christmas (as I have the last two years) I spent as one of Santa’s elves! Embroidering names and greetings on blankets, bathrobes, hats, towels, trolleys, etc at Colony Brands. It’s always been a bit of a downer to go into that warehouse big as a football stadium full of stuff stacked to the ceiling.

For some reason this year it seemed more problematic than the previous two. I suppose because of the uptick in environmental disasters—the Cedar Rapids’ Derecho last year and ours this past August. I mean, it is one thing to sit in front of your TV and watch Australia or someplace else burn or flood be eaten alive by a tornado or cyclone.  It is quite another when the trees in your own back yard blow over, and a limb might take out your brand new deck.

Of course, the many phases of manufacture, transportation, marketing and sale of stuff—the hallmark of modern society—is destroying the environment. I had made a Christmas list, but I came home one night, tore the list into confetti and dropped in the waste basket. It just seemed sick, nay, depraved to want anything more than I already have. The more I looked at the stuff stacked 3 stories high, the sicker it seemed.

That didn’t fix anything: only resulted in me not get a hand pump for my bike tires. Cuz who in their right mind would get that for an old lady?

You Have a Right to Remain Unvaccinated; Do you Have a Right to a Hospital Bed if You Get It?

I personally know of a dying man who waited four hours for a bed at Finley Hospital, Dubuque. A gentleman from Sioux City whose pacemaker got infected couldn’t get into any of his local hospitals, so he had to take an ambulance to Omaha, Neb. My niece, an emergency room doc in Ohio, is not just exhausted, but a tad furious at the unvaccinated horde presenting in her hospital. Myself, I wouldn't want the emergency doc P-Oed at me before I even arrived!

Online sources vary in their estimates of how many Covid patienets are unvaccinated. Louisiana, the lowest estimate, is 80%. Most U.S. numbers run right around a hundred—96%, 98% and one  99 percent. Healthpayer Intelligence says "unvaccinated COVID-19 patients contributed over $13 billion to national healthcare spending from June 2021 through November 2021. So yeah, we are all footing the bill.

While it is anybody's right not to get vaccinated, and I endorse it wholeheartedly, do you also have a right to crowd into a hospital, when you do get it? Put an additional burden on overworked staff? Strain resources? Make cancer, stroke, burn or whatever patients wait for hours? I don't think so, and it is about time that political leaders everywhere recognize how easy it is for libertarian types to demand their rights to pollute, not get vaccinated or whatever, but we, the rest of the society, pay for their actions. 

It is unfair, undemocratic and unconscionable.