April 17: Xenophobe in Chief, Stop Being Stupid, Poem from "Kyrie"

You know, I've been seeing these theories floating around social media (fueled by the Xenophobe in Chief sitting in the Oval Office) that this pandemic isn't simply Mother Nature being Mother Nature.  The story goes that Covid-19 was created in a Chinese laboratory and was somehow loosed on the world, either accidentally or purposefully.

I suppose this is a natural response to an event that is so mind-boggingly catastrophic.  We want to blame someone or something.  That's what humans do.  Place blame.  By that logic, we have to blame the United States for the deadliest pandemic of the last 100 years (the Spanish flu of 1918 that killed almost 50 million people worldwide).  It seems to have begun in the heartland of the United States, spreading from there.  There were three waves of the Spanish flu, and that pandemic lasted well over a year, and it kept returning because human beings simply refused to keep isolating.

The second wave of that pandemic began because World War I ended, and citizens of my home country had to throw parades to celebrate.  People crowded the streets, hugged each other, rubbed shoulders, cheered.  Because of those celebrations, another outbreak of that flu occurred, killing more people in total than World War I did.  So, again, America is to blame for that second bout. 

My point is this:  people need to stop being stupid.  Human beings mess up the world, and the world corrects things.  That's how it works.  Instead of looking for someone to blame, how about stopping idiots from throwing massive protests, blocking routes to hospitals, and spreading this fucking virus even more.  This isn't about socialism or fascism.  It's science.  We stay away from each other.  The virus can't spread.  The virus goes away, like an uninvited relative at Thanksgiving. 

Instead of listening to brain-dead, swastika-wearing, gun-toting hate mongers, how 'bout listening to the ones who know a few things about epidemiology--you know, those women and men in the white coats who we all run to when we get sick.

This message has been brought to you by Saint Marty and common sense.

poem from Kyrie

by:  Martin Achatz

Hogs aren't pretty but they're smart,
and clean as you let them be--in a clean pen,
hogs are cleaner than your average cat:
they use their nose to push their shit aside.
And not lazy:  if a hog
acts sick, you know it's sick.

As long as I've known hogs, I've known sick hogs,
especially in the fall, the cold and wet.
Before the weather goes, you slaughter hogs
unless you want to find them on their sides,
rheumy eyes, runny snout.

It's simple enough arithmetic,
so don't you think the Kaiser knew?
Get one hog sick, you get them all.