Being home for Christmas in 2020 ain’t all it’s cracked up to be
“I’ll be hooommmeee for Christ-maaasssss, if only in myyyyy dreams.” Seeing as it’s holiday time, this WWII-era Christmas classic is typically found in American households tuned to the music and sounds that have brought everyone much needed joy over the years. December marks the end of the calendar year, a time for reflection and remembrance of the eleven months leading to the final one. No need to rehash here, it’s been a heck of a year, one which many, many people aren’t wild about recalling in any way, shape or form. The holiday season is a time for hosting friends and family, a labor of love for most people as their hours of preparation are ultimately rewarded with smiling faces and happy guests. There’s an added layer of satisfaction and joy in seeing plans come together -- the Christmas plays performed, concerts attended, church services observed, the dinners enjoyed and great tidings of comfort and joy realized. As the above song suggests, home is the center of the universe this time of year. But home takes on a different connotation when we’re effectively locked into it by government order. As expected, the authorities are telling us to stay home, for the good of ourselves and others around us. Due to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, or Wuhan, if you prefer) virus, Thanksgiving celebrations were scaled back or flat out canceled for far too many last month. The powers that be -- largely from one side of the political spectrum -- said it would save lives to avoid human contact. Yet the “spike” in infections continues, despite all the cautions and warnings from the science crowd. Christmas is next. You’ll be home for Christmas alright, and this year you’ll dream you could get the heck out of it. Dr. Thomas Lew wrote at The USA Today, “We need to slow the spread of the virus. We failed at Thanksgiving. Despite pleas from medical experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stay at home, there were a record number of flights this year. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving alone, almost 1.2 million people flew on packed airplanes. Already in the midst of a surge, cases continue to rise and we are beginning to see the ‘surge upon surge’ that Dr. Fauci predicted from these Thanksgiving get-togethers.” Hmmm. We failed at Thanksgiving? You mean all the closures and dire premonitions didn’t halt the spread of the dreaded CCP plague like they told us it would? This echoes what the medical “science” folks have said since March, that if Americans only give social distancing and mask wearing a little more time that the “curve” will be flattened or eliminated and we can return to our pre COVID existence of going places and interacting. It’s hard to contemplate, but someone like Dr. Fauci has become one of the world’s most famous people because of something that originated in China. Now, according to Dr. Lew, we must submit to one more self-imposed lockdown or things will be even worse for everyone! Scrubbing Christmas gatherings is the elites’ premier target, for if they can effectively eliminate the holiday season, they can direct us to do anything! The “sheep” will go along with it, too, since the portion of the population that automatically adheres to this line of autocracy is the same one that lectures others to do like they’re doing or be shamed into a massive guilt cult. Their hypocrisy is stunning, and I’m not just talking about the Gavin Newsoms of society who say one thing -- STAY HOME! -- and then do another. It’s the fact that so much of civilization is still functioning, yet it’s the private citizen who’s blamed for spreading the disease. As far as I know, we can still go out and purchase gifts and trinkets practically everywhere, but we can’t go to someone’s house? Here in Virginia, a few days ago we passed an outlet mall that was absolutely jampacked with holiday revelers making purchases and milling about. Yet this was mere hours before Gov. Ralph “Klan hood” Northam imposed a curfew that mandates people stay out of sight between midnight and five a.m. Sheesh, there must’ve been a lot of virus spreading drunks closing down bars in the middle of the night to generate such paranoia. Shouldn’t some media honk ask what basis there is to decree that no one leaves their home for five hours a day when 99.9 percent of folks are either sleeping in their beds or willfully ensconced in TV watching, reading or working on scrapbooking -- or whatever else people do who can’t catch a few winks in the deep dark of night? Don’t get me wrong -- I fully support retail outlets being open. And from what I gather from observation, most restaurants and bars are open as well, if only on a limited basis. And Lord knows, you can order pretty much anything you want from Amazon these days, and UPS and FedEx have been at full capacity for months due to people shopping electronically. How many online orders does it take to spread a virus? Maybe we’ll address the topic over Christmas dinner since we’ve been crammed in our spaces for month upon month and we’re running out of things to talk about. Churches will offer some sort of observances, though a good lot of them are either limiting attendance or cleverly getting around the more absurd restrictions by conducting services with doors and windows open. Sunday was almost seventy degrees in our neck of the woods, but hearing the Gospel would be a measure less gratifying if it were below freezing with a howling wind blowing. As far as we know, a re-reading of the Nativity story doesn’t require personal discomfort and suffering to appreciate. Are these continuing calls for COVID fright really worth it? And are they actually making a difference? Again, this is not arguing that the coronavirus isn’t serious. A church friend just sent out an email asking for prayers because an extended family member just succumbed with the virus. This story is repeated all across the country. People know of the danger. And the most vulnerable must do everything possible to keep the risk as low as feasible. 66-year-old Fox News commentator Juan Williams took a break from beating up Donald Trump this week to describe his own recent bout with COVID. As devoted liberals tend to do, Williams said he was extremely wary of contracting the virus, always wearing a mask and even stepping into the street to avoid potential contact with strangers. Yet still he caught the virus (as did his wife, a smoker). He wondered about his own mortality. And now he feels better again. Wouldn’t this indicate the virus is everywhere already? For the rest of us -- can’t we weigh our own risk factors? Does hospital capacity alone supply grounds to tell citizens what to do? Does everyone want to be (jailed at) home for Christmas? The concept of assumption of risk has disappeared in 2020 From the above cited op-ed, Lew additionally wrote, “There is hope on the horizon. Vaccines will be rolling out soon, but it is important to realize that wide distribution will not be for weeks or months. Plenty of death and devastation can happen in the meantime. In addition, vaccines will be more effective and quicker in controlling the pandemic in an environment where the incidence of COVID-19 cases is lower. President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, put it well. ‘If I have a cup of water, I can put out a stove fire,’ she tweeted. ‘But I can’t put out a forest fire, even if that water is 100% potent.’” While certainly dangerous to those in the effected categories, COVID-19 isn’t akin to a forest fire, which indiscriminately destroys and kills everything in its path. The CCP virus is more like a nationwide wastebasket ignition that in most cases is extinguished before it necessitates a call to the fire department and the insurance adjusters. Enormous resources have been devoted to battling the spotty conflagration. We don’t need to stop living life just because the next fire instance could be worse than the previous one. It’s safe to say most people have friends or relatives who’ve caught the virus and either didn’t know they had it or recovered after a period of incapacity. Most people get ill sometime during the year, and prior to nine months ago, didn’t give such occasions much thought. Most businesses provide full-time employees paid leave for days when they’re not feeling their best. Kids could still go to school if they weren’t vomiting or feverish. Now the authorities take the kids’ temperatures before they’re allowed into a school building (if they can go at all). This despite less than one percent of COVID-19 deaths (not cases) occurring in people under 35. And the danger to kids is practically non-existent. Yes, it’s a strange world (Santa and Mrs. Claus tested positive in Georgia. Santa is a super spreader!). The powers that be have spread groupthink and anxiety faster than any virus could ever disseminate. I see lots of people wearing masks in their cars, for example. Unless they’ve really taken to the things, such deterrents aren’t logical. Doesn’t anyone ever wonder why the CCP virus still spreads yet masks are pretty much universal outside the home? Here in Virginia, we’re even directed to wear masks outdoors if there’s a situation where we can’t “social distance.” What’s the basis for the rule? Through contact tracing, how many humans have caught the virus outdoors? Why haven’t the masks saved us? Again, they’re mandatory inside buildings, yet people still catch the virus. Instead, fault those dang Thanksgiving get-togethers that most of us didn’t even have! The virus mindset has changed as well, largely through practical considerations that have nothing to do with containing the spread. Major sports leagues either canceled or delayed seasons earlier this year. The National Basketball Association fabricated itself a “bubble” (in Orlando, FL) where teams would stay and play games at a small number of approved venues with no outside interference. Major League Baseball shrank its season to 60 games and held its World Series at a neutral site to minimize travel. One of the winning team’s best players was removed from the final game in the eighth inning after test results showed he was positive. (Justin Turner then got in trouble for coming out onto the field to celebrate with his teammates and take a few pictures with the trophy… all while masked.) The National Football League appears headed for a complete season, but not without a plethora of practice facility closures and schedule disruptions (the Pittsburgh Steelers/Baltimore Ravens game was postponed three times before being played six days after it was originally slated) due to “outbreaks”. One team, the Denver Broncos, was forced to play without a rostered quarterback because its regular signal-callers were in a meeting without a mask and were suspended. In golf, the Masters was played in November. The winner, Dustin Johnson, was a COVID-survivor. The almighty dollar must’ve motivated the ruling class to allow these entities to play at all. Remember when everyone was warned to cease operations or face a likely visit from the grim reaper? These teams do generate a heck of a tax haul, don’t they? And they’ve got a powerful lobby. Gone is talk of playing games as the possible cause of an epic pandemic. Meanwhile, the lower level team employees, local bars and restaurants and the wage earning stadium personnel are still out of work, but who cares about them? Ditto for school sports teams.
They’ll be home for Christmas, just like the rest of us. Only the elites get to do what they want and then dream about it.
The vaccine is here! The vaccine is here! You’re still going to have to wait six months!
Now that the federal authorities have greenlighted vaccines for distribution, the slow process of administering them begins. Even then, a big percentage of the population won’t step up to take the medicine. Tyler Van Dyke wrote at The Washington Examiner, “Many public health officials were concerned that skepticism regarding vaccines and fears of a politicized vaccine development process would lead to large shares of the population opting not to get the vaccine. Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, asked people in the United States to ‘hit the reset button’ on skepticism surrounding the vaccine's ‘astounding’ development timeline.
“Only 15% of respondents said that they would never get the vaccine. Republicans were more likely to say that they would not get the vaccine, at more than one-quarter. Six percent of Democrats said they were more likely to not get the vaccine.
“The poll also found that roughly one-third of respondents think states should make the coronavirus vaccine mandatory.”
If they can annul Christmas, maybe they’ll feel empowered to order people to take a vaccine. Just saying.
Everyone has an opinion on what to do about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but no one has a real answer. Freedom has taken a beating this year along with its close companion, common sense. Thanksgiving was canceled by the politicians and “science” pushers, and now it looks like Christmas is in grave danger of being banned too. How much can we take?
2020 Election
Mike Pence
Kamala Harris
Donald Trump
Joe Biden
COVID-19
media, polls
Trump parades
rallies
lockdowns
Thanksgiving
Christmas
vaccine