I did it again, read one to many of the plethoras of social media posts by people I respect that have a difference of opinion and am on a fuming tangent. When this occurs I need to write it out of my system, I do not engage in direct comment wars. Why? There are those that do not realize what they say, some that refuse to recognize the difference of opinion as valid, and those that are simply unreachable and unteachable. I can actually do educated research to act as a foundation to support why I believe and act on the things I do; not on a meme, or a skewed headline. Real, we are in a pandemic. Real, it is spreading. Real, intubation, and putting people in body bags is not fun.
Today is the 4th of July and I am home social distancing and working on my Master’s in Science with a focus on Nursing education. Instead of writing on the assigned task of standard nursing terminology (SNT), I am writing my opinion on the varied extremes on masking and belief in a virus. As a concerned human “old enough to know better, but I'm still too young to care” (Hayes, 2009). Just kidding I care a lot. I live my life as a volunteer to help people learn the truth of the gospel and heal them of health disparities. Unfortunately, this means people believe they can treat me (and anyone in public or health service) however they want and state it’s what we signed up for. Thanks for the hero sign, the unpaid time off, and the stress that I have from saving the world’s humans while putting myself and family at risk. Unfortunately, many that don’t care about anyone outside themselves because they are either just living their life with no regard to others or those who do care but believe their freedoms will be taken (or already have been) by being asked to mask up and stay safe. Medical people have masked and gowned up for hours or days on end out of necessity and evidence-based practice to stop the spread of illness for years. No one loves personal protection equipment (PPE) but we use it for safety.
I don’t want to take your rights. I want you to contribute to safety. I don’t want you to stop working, lose your money, home, rights while you shut up and do what you’re told, and shiver in fear while the [insert your personal theory/politics/conspiracy here, or share a meme about it] takes over. I want you to be smart enough to wash your hands, believe health and public workers about what their day is like. I want to decrease the spread of illness, to keep it from spreading so fast that those workers are unable to help because they are outnumbered and out resourced and sick themselves. I want you to respect the fact that people have no symptoms and are positive and can spread it for about ten days everywhere they go.
The sad part is the fact that we mostly see and believe far extremes of what’s reported. I believe there are enough health and public service workers that see the medium of truth through the number of people requiring assistance, yet none are allowed to speak publically about it or have it accepted as a resignation. I am appalled daily by the opinions and behavior of others especially since my life and career are spent as a servant to my God and community. I am mostly tucked away in an office taking care of health keeping people out of the doctor’s office. I not working on the front lines during the coronavirus but know some that are, and am part of the plan if they get overwhelmed on the frontlines. We are in for a rough time because is inaccurate reports, politics, individual choice, and finance playing with human lives. The people that criticize everything and everyone then turn around and ask for a helping hand from public and health that “signed up for this”.
Think of the times you’ve walked in the other person’s shoes and developed an understanding of how someone with a different opinion may have come to where they are. Have you any compassion? Have you enough common sense to believe that reports of happenings that don’t personally affect you are could be true-life events for others?
I protest people not fact-checking the foundation of their own protest before causing irreversible damage to others with their word and or actions. I want to live to see the next Independence Day and I want you to. I don’t want your next holiday to happen six feet under while someone wipes a tear while they stand on your grave.
References
Gerd Altmann. (2020). Coronavirus protests. [Phontograph]. Pixaby stock photos. Retrieved
from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/corona-coronavirus-virus-protests-5184533/
Hayes, Wade. (2009). Old enough to know better. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvECozWfZR4
