What about MY freedom? A short essay by Takket

[Texacon]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215683632


2 things; the unvaccinated are not taking your freedom, you are the one taking your freedom. Second, are you telling me the vaccinated are not getting and spreading the delta variant?  If that’s what you’re saying you’re wrong. Oh, one more thing, thank Biden for letting this variant into our country for me, will you?

Takket
What about MY freedom? A short essay by Takket

This has been bugging me for some time now. Like a slow-motion car wreck, we have watched the delta variant sweep methodically across the USA. We know what it did to India, and now it is here.

I am the spouse of a disabled person, someone who spent over a year leaving the house for nothing but doctor's appointments while we waited for the vaccine, because they have many high risk factors for Covid death. I restricted my own movements for their benefit as well. Masking up (as required by my employer, which I'm grateful for), every day at work. I used curbside pickup options wherever possible to avoid exposing myself to other shoppers. We took no recreational trips. We celebrated the holidays last year over skype. I handed off thanksgiving dinner in ziplock containers to my parents in the parking lot.

Then the vaccine came, and we both hit refresh on the browser a thousand times over trying to get appointments. When one came up I got my spouse one first, because they needed it more than me. Then I got my appointment a week or so later. I had to leave work in the middle of the day and drive 25 miles in the wrong direction (away from my home) to get my shot, then drive back to work.

By late May and early June the numbers here in Michigan were virtually zero. We made plans for a vacation to Florida in September, and attended outdoor art fairs. I bought tickets to see my beloved Red Sox play the Tigers in Detroit next week, and will go with my father, and a best friend who is bringing his son. We mostly stopped masking, but I did wear one for a huge art fair with thousands of people. No one gave us a hard time about wearing a mask, though about 90% weren't wearing one. But this did not bother me. There were almost zero Covid cases still at this point, and the CDC told us we were safe.

My employer dropped the mask mandate, eventually, and for about two weeks I went without one at work.

This week, I started wearing one everywhere again. My employer still does not have a mandate back at work, but I feel like it is inevitable, and wearing the mask does not bother me physically.

This week, we also cancelled our trip to Florida in September. The numbers there are out of control, and the governor is actively working in all avenues to increase them. I simply cannot trust my health or that of my spouse to the decisions other people make. On the television I see report after report about vaccine hesitancy, and I see people with signs saying "my body my choice", something I know they are saying tongue and cheek to troll Democrats because most likely, they are anti-choice when it comes to a woman's right to choose.

And that brings me back to the question in my OP.

What about MY freedom? Why is it the only persons whose freedom and rights to go where they want and do what they want that seems to be of any relevance in all this is the people that don't want to wear masks or get the vaccine?

What about all the people like me who are again putting off a vacation? Who enjoyed being told by their employer you don't have to wear a mask or get a temperature screening, because we don't think it is necessary anymore? Who felt safe again going out into large gatherings of people and enjoying the things we remembered doing in 2019?

We all soldier on doing what is right, and what is recommended, silently in the background. Our sadness, that these restrictions imposed on our freedoms by our desire to not catch Covid or spread it to anyone else, is unknown and unheard in the media. We have listened to all the facts, heeded the warnings of all the experts, and rolled up our sleeves to do what must be done. And the result is that Delta is taking over the USA because as it turns out, only the freedoms of those that DON'T want to do the work, matter.

Let me be clear on something though. I oppose the idea of the government strapping people down and injecting them with a vaccine. That is dystopian. And I do not share the sentiment that the CDC "did the wrong thing" in dropping masking guidelines when they did. At the time they appeared to be no longer needed. That turned out to be wrong but NOT because they made the mistake over underestimating the virus. No, the mistake they made was overestimating how many Americans would do the right thing and get vaccinated.

The CDC believed the numbers were low and would continue to drop because we would get to the 70% of fully vaccinated people and achieve herd immunity. They were wrong, because the irresponsible are so much more selfish than we ever realized.

What we need now is an awakening of the corporate sector to help us out of this mess. This week, the news is encouraging. Many organizations are realizing that the irresponsible are cutting into their bottom line, and in the USA, if 600,000 dead people can't talk, money always will. Locally both the University of Michigan and Michigan State announced all faculty, staff and students must be vaccinated to attend this fall.

Nationally both Disney and Walmart have instituted vaccine requirements for their employees. Imagine a company like Disney that is surely seeing their bottom line drop through the floor as they try to recover from the pandemic, seeing vacation packages being cancelled right and left because people that might have felt safe a month ago being terrified to go to Florida now.

Are you a company that wants to get people back in the office? Start requiring the vaccine. Are you a restaurant that just can't seem to turn a profit because people still don't want to eat in? Start requiring proof of vaccine to eat there.

People who don't want the vaccine have the right to say no, but it is time to stop catering the whole of our society to their whim, especially since it is literally killing people. It is time to stop losing OUR freedoms because THEY don't want to help, and pretending that their opinions are the only ones that matter. Just because the rest of us aren't loud and obnoxious about our desires to get back to normal doesn't mean we don't have them. They don't have to get the vaccine but we shouldn't all have to suffer because of it.

If you don't want the vaccine you can skip going to college this year. You can get drive through instead of eating at a restaurant. You can miss out on the concert and stay home with your kids instead of taking them to Disney World. The rest of us did our part so we could go back to living our lives, and it shouldn't be us that once again bears the burden of cleaning up the completely avoidable mess that you have made.

It didn't have to be this way with delta. We had the tools needed to stop it in its tracks, and it is not my fault that the unvaccinated crowd refuses to use them.

On a phone so that’s all I’m bringing over.

Enjoy.

KC

[NRAInstructor]

At the risk of being offered a tin foil hat, I think there's a lot more to this vaccine than meets the eye.  I think there's a population control element involved here.  It may take years to manifest, but I'm willing to bet just about anything that we're going to see a direct correlation between those who are vaccinated and those who are sterile in coming years.

I refuse to inject that poison into myself. 

[Mary Ann]

I don't believe in government mandated ANYTHING, but the idea of the corporate/DNC complex scares me almost as much. The left is using the private sector to shut down our civil rights, and then claiming they are innocent, because a private company can do whatever it wants.

[67 Rover]

I don't believe in government mandated ANYTHING, but the idea of the corporate/DNC complex scares me almost as much. The left is using the private sector to shut down our civil rights, and then claiming they are innocent, because a private company can do whatever it wants.

This is exactly why my "friend" submitted a fake vaccination card to his employer. He is not going to play the game and he has no problem in not telling the truth when it involves this topic.

[thundley4]

At the risk of being offered a tin foil hat, I think there's a lot more to this vaccine than meets the eye.  I think there's a population control element involved here.  It may take years to manifest, but I'm willing to bet just about anything that we're going to see a direct correlation between those who are vaccinated and those who are sterile in coming years.

I refuse to inject that poison into myself.

Curiously, older people had less severe reactions to the vaccines. Younger people have been hit harder in most cases. Now they are pushing for children to be vaccinated.

[USA4ME]

The Takket primitive sounds like a top notch Nazi.

Also this:

On the television I see report after report about vaccine hesitancy, and I see people with signs saying "my body my choice", something I know they are saying tongue and cheek to troll Democrats because most likely, they are anti-choice when it comes to a woman's right to choose.

And you should be trolled over it. You want to apply it for one thing but not for all. It’s an easily recognizable hypocrisy on Democrats part. For instance, according to your above “logic”, if someone is pro-choice AND anti-vax you would be OK with them because they are truly living their “my body, my choice” manta. But I bet if I asked you if holding both of those beliefs were OK, you wouldn’t agree.

.

[FunkyZero]

Thats a lot of words for a DUmmy.
It can all be condensed quite easily:  "Accommodate my every demand so I can find something else to bellow about you bastards!"

bad news, DUmmy...  normally, we would care. But in the case of entitled and demanding little commies like you, we simply give zero sh**s regarding your wants or needs.
Swim in your own paranoia and fears, we really don't care.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Michigan huh?  Just like when libs complain about long voting lines, this is all mismanaged by your Emperor Whitmer.  A "you" problem, not us conservatives, nor is it Jim Eagle on Fredo Cuomo's steroids.

Never had a problem with voting even in Communist Chicago.  Blame your own leaders and b.s voting access.

[NRAInstructor]

"Accommodate my every demand so I can find something else to bellow about you bastards!

That about sums up liberalism in a nutshell.

Ever notice how's "we just want ___" odd the biggest lie they tell?  They get things all the time and it's never enough. As soon as they win something, they're on to the next thing. There will never be a time, no matter how much we give them, where they will say "Okay, we're happy now. We're done."

They will never be satisfied. So why give them anything at all? You can't reason with an unreasonable person. You can't satisfy a greedy, selfish person.

They don't want compromise, they want total control. And it's down to us to stop them at all costs.

[freedumb2003b]

I cannot believe ANYONE read more tgan the first few sentences of that repetituve boring tome.  Not even the other lefties.  Not even the author.

It was like Carolyn Hax on coke.

I am sure it is memememememememeeeeeeeee!

Not worth my time.

[ADsOutburst]

That about sums up liberalism in a nutshell.

Ever notice how's "we just want ___" odd the biggest lie they tell?  They get things all the time and it's never enough. As soon as they win something, they're on to the next thing. There will never be a time, no matter how much we give them, where they will say "Okay, we're happy now. We're done."

They will never be satisfied. So why give them anything at all? You can't reason with an unreasonable person. You can't satisfy a greedy, selfish person.

They don't want compromise, they want total control. And it's down to us to stop them at all costs.

Right on.

"We just want universal background checks and to close the gun show loophole!" *Tries to create firearms database and ban pretty much anything than can hold more than one round at a time.*

[SVPete]

I waded a quarter or a third of the way into that word salad, and with no hint of a point, I moved on. Did the guy ever stop virtue-signally and start moving toward something toward something resembling a point?

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Get your shots and wear your mask. If those actually work you will have as much freedom as you deserve without my freedoms posing the least little threat to you.

[Texacon]

I waded a quarter or a third of the way into that word salad, and with no hint of a point, I moved on. Did the guy ever stop virtue-signally and start moving toward something toward something resembling a point?

Basically;  live the way I want you to or you’re suppressing my freedom!

KC

[SVPete]

Get your shots and wear your mask. If those actually work you will have as much freedom as you deserve without my freedoms posing the least little threat to you.

As best I can tell, many DUpipo are getting vaccinated, but don't actually believe the vaccines are effective. Cognitive dissonance reigns supreme on DU.

For may part, I've been vaxxed and spent most of yesterday with about 800 other runners and walkers and several hundred more of their family and friends at a running event. I'd guesstimate mask usage at under 5% (I wasn't). I figure the risk of falling into San Francisco Bay (along which the course ran) was far higher.

Basically;  live the way I want you to or you’re suppressing my freedom!

KC

Pretty much what I guessed, but the writer got so deep into his/her I've done everything right virtue-signalling shtick that it topped my waders, so I headed back to the shores of Sanity.

[Movie buff- The Sequel]

"
This week, we also cancelled our trip to Florida in September. The numbers there are out of control, and the governor is actively working in all avenues to increase them."

As a Floridian myself, that's bull.
I'm a teacher's assistant in my thirties, and I was able to get myself fully vaccinated way back in March, because Governor DeSantis did away with the age- limit requirement for school employees to get vaccinated (Up to that point only school employees aged 50 and older could get it), AND allowed FEMA to set up a bunch of free pop- up vaccination sites throughout the state, in order to get as many teachers vaccinated as possible and thus get all of Florida's schools open again as soon as possible. Now, everyone in Florida aged 12 and older is eligible to get the vaccine.
I'd say Governor DeSantis has done an awesome job balancing his need to help combat Covid with his need to get the state productive again, while the Lefty governors in other states do nothing but encourage their people to live in constant terror of getting infected.

[freedumb2003b]

"
This week, we also cancelled our trip to Florida in September. The numbers there are out of control, and the governor is actively working in all avenues to increase them."

Good.  If this becomes a trend the airfare will go down and the lines will remain short (no way is ANY business going to re-close) and tickets easy to get.

[Zathras]

One thing you can rely on a DUmbass to do is use a lot of words to say nothing at all and this DUmbass is no exception.

[Aristotelian]

I'd say Governor DeSantis has done an awesome job balancing his need to help combat Covid with his need to get the state productive again, while the Lefty governors in other states do nothing but encourage their people to live in constant terror of getting infected.

This is precisely the point - sensible people recognise that there are risks in the world, and that any intervention carries costs. As such they recognise that good policy involves balancing the costs and risks of a particular decision with its potential benefits.

The DUmmies (and the wretched fools running our government here in England) basically disregard the costs of lockdowns, pretend that nothing matters other than stopping Covid.