This is an intentional clickbait title because I am shameless. If my pastor and/or employer is reading this…I hope you’re not suffering too big of a heart attack right now; I’ll be nice, I promise.
COVID
… IS A GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY!!! Jk jk jk. We have entered the 3rd year of a global pandemic. I think back on those first few weeks when we were told it would be a 2week lockdown and I was terrified. I remember wearing a mask & latex gloves to get gas or groceries. I would walk back into the house, take off all of my clothes @ the front door, throw them in the laundry, wash my hands, spray lysol on groceries, and put them away. I was mostly worried because it seemed to be hitting older folks most & I lived with my parents and grandma. To be perfectly honest, there is a TINY part of me that believes this disease MAY have started as a lowkey conspiracy to kill old people who don’t generate money for society and then spun out of control. But to be more honest, it’s the same tiny part of me that believes XMen walk among us and the Lochness Monster is real (and if I had to pick, Nessie & XMen > Covid conspiracy). Here’s the thing, we need to all have the same basis. So maybe you believe it’s a manufactured disease, maybe you believe it is real, maybe you believe “it’s a flu”, but whatever it is, it’s here. There is a new thing that has been wiping people out over the last 3yrs; or, exacerbating people’s pre-existing conditions (in a way the average cold/flu -historically – has not..) which in turn, is wiping them out. Almost everyone recovers from it (though some have long lasting effects) but, more than 5MIL people (that we know of) are gone.
VACCINES
… ARE A GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY!!! Jk jk jk. At first, the only reason I got my vaccines are because I didn’t want to kill my parents/grandparents or anyone else’s. It wasn’t about travelling. It wasn’t about “getting into places” . It wasn’t even for my own well being. I wonder how people would feel about this vaccine if instead of killing old/sick people, it was killing 20-40 yr olds? If instead of killing someone’s parent, it was killing someone’s child? But I digress. New things are often scary. I understand why someone would be apprehensive of injecting themselves with “something new”. However, to quote one of my best friends, “the people that are fighting this are the same people I’ve witnessed take an MDMA pill off the floor and snort cocaine off a stripper so, their argument for foreign substances in their body has zero fkn legs to stand on”. Perhaps you’ve never taken an MDMA pill or snorted coke off strippers (samesies!), but the point is, we ingest things we don’t fully understand everyday . Still, this vaccine is NEW NEW, so I’ll give it to you. It is 100000% anybody’s right to not be injected with something they don’t feel comfortable with – regardless of reasoning. Speaking of rights…
RIGHTS
… ARE A GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY!! Jk – or am I? In university, I took a class on globalization wherein we discussed human rights. My professor said human rights didn’t really exist because they are “meant to help the powerless but are power dependent so it’s a moot point”. Is it a human right to be able to go into a restaurant? To watch a movie in a theatre? To travel wherever you want whenever you want? To get whatever food you want, whenever you want, regardless of the season or place you might be living in on this planet? For reference, here is a link to the United Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Nothing about movies or restaurants.It certainly has its limits but for now, it’s what we have. Here’s a pretty chill right:
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing
and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security
in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or
other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
A few weeks ago, Legault stated there would be a kind of “anti vax tax” for people who don’t get vaccinated. I don’t think that’s okay and I cannot imagine they will truly be able to implement that anyway. Our current medical system is universal healthcare. It is predicated on the fact that anyone, no matter their choices, has a right to medical care. The UDHR states “the right to a standard of living” – who decides that standard? Who decides what constitutes “well being”? Who decides what social services are “necessary”? And when hospitals get overloaded and we have to pick who gets medical care – whose rights win?
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR
…IS A COMMUNIST SLOGAN MEANT TO LIMIT OUR FREEDOMS!! Jk jk jk jk. Here is the first article in the UDHR:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a
spirit of brother(sister)hood.
“In a spirit of brother(sister)hood”. That’s what it says. Our individual rights are inalienable and we should use them in the spirit of brother(sister)hood. Please understand that I do NOT want to end this with some “it’s nice to be nice” bullshit. I am as exhausted as everyone else. I want to be able to sit in a hospital waiting room with my dad so he isn’t alone. I want people in the restaurant industry to have their livelihoods back. I want to go back to church IRL. I want people with underlying medical conditions to not have to be afraid to go out in public. I want blood donations back up. I want our healthcare workers to stop carrying the actual weight of the world on their shoulders. I want kids back in schools! This all started because it was us – humans – VS. the virus. Then it was the West VS. China. Then it was the people VS. the government. Then it was the left VS. the right. Then it was the vaxxers VS. anti-vaxxers. So what now?
DON’T BE AN ASSHOLE
… is just good fucking advice. No joke. I am guilty of being an asshole and have certainly been throughout this pandemic (but it has more to do with my personality than the pandemic TBH). ProTip: before you do/say/post something, ask yourself “would an asshole do/say/post this?” and if they would, do NOT do or say or post that thing! And if you’re not sure, ask me! Right now, a truck convoy is heading to Ottawa to protest the restrictions. We ALL want this pandemic to end. Most of us are trying to achieve that by getting vaccinated. Some of us are trying to achieve that by protesting the government. I am saying “US” because I want to remind myself that we are an “US” vs. the virus. Not me vs you vs them. While you’re sitting at home following mandates or out in the streets licking eyeballs for freedom, please consider the brother(sister)hood. As we have seen before, lifting restrictions too soon can have some serious consequences and maybe they’re ones you could live with it. But what about the ones who can’t? Like who literally – cannot? The teacher who is immunocompromised? The student who struggles with anxiety and is not yet ready to go back to school? Or the child who suffers with anxiety and NEEDS to go back to school? Or the person who gets into an accident and needs medical help FAST but can’t because the ER is full? Or the nurse who decided not to get vaccinated, got fired, only to see the government is asking infected nurses to come into work? It’s all unfair but also as fair as it can be given the circumstances but also kind of lame for extroverts but also kind of chill for introverts and we are straight up living in the upside down. We’re doing our best. Every industry. The government included. I am doing what I can in the spirit of brother(sister)hood for vaccinated people and non vaccinated people alike. I hope you’re doing the same and for the same reasons.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. – Galatians 6:9
Lâches pas, les amis ❤
Extraordinarily Ordinary 