Get Sick. Die.Repeat.

We’ve been here before, you know, and clearly, we have learned nothing.

Picture it. America, 1918. The first World War was winding down and officials across the country were under enormous pressure to sell war bonds. But how do you attract attention to your bonds? Hold a parade in major cities to rally the public behind the war bond effort.

Trouble is, or was, America was in the throes of a pandemic—the Spanish Flu—and people were dying all over the place;  when it was all said and done 675,000 Americans died of the Spanish Flu—50 million people globally—compared to 116,708 Americans killed in World War I.

Doctors were at a loss as to what to recommend to their patients; many urged people to avoid crowded places or simply other people, and also told people to keep their mouths and noses covered in public. 

Sounds vaguely familiar, no? That September 1918, in Philadelphia, 600 sailors and 47 civilians had been diagnosed with the flu, and some had already perished. But, hey, there were bonds to sell the fund the war, and on September 28, 1918, Philadelphia held a parade to sell war bonds.

On the 28th, a line of Boy Scouts, marching bands, women's auxiliary groups,  and troops 2 miles long wound its way up Broad Street in front of a crowd of over 200,000 people. Within three days, every bed in Phil­a­del­phia's 31 hospitals was occupied. Within a week, 45,000 citizens were infected, and the entire city had shut down. By the second week in November, 12,000 Phila­del­phians were dead, and the phrase "bodies stacked like cordwood" had become commonplace among the survivors. Within six months, 16,000 were dead, and 500,000 Phil­a­del­phians had fallen ill with the flu.

Now, I don’t wanna bash Philadelphia, because that wasn’t the only city to hold a parade or to urge citizens to come out in droves and mingle with one another, but …

Take Milwaukee, for example; they had the lowest death rate of any large city in America during the pandemic, because the city's health commissioner, Dr. George Ruhland, had ordered schools closed, saloons and public spaces shut down, and told people to stay home.

And yet here we are again, in the midst of a pandemic where we are told that social distancing, self-isolating, will stop the spread of COVID-19 and we have not learned one goddamned thing.

Well, we learned not to have parades, though we have massive groups of people in the streets marching and protesting that they have the right to be outside because, and I love this new turn of phrase, they have “freedumbs.”

People, like that guy, carrying a sign that says “Covid-19 is a LIE” while covered up and wearing a mask. Freedumb. Or this woman, who declares it’s her body, and her choice … to contract a virus that could kill her … while also promoting her choice for president in 2020 as a man whose party tells her every single day that it isn’t her body and her choice, when it comes to her healthcare. Freedumb.

And the protestors in New Hampshire, where the state motto is “Live free or die”, who want the country and businesses to reopen; perhaps their motto should be “Live Free, and then Die”. Freedumbs.

And the dumbest part of all these protests? The fools with the Confederate flags or the 2nd Amendment posters. What does this have to do with COVID-19 and trying to get this country safe? Or is it just that racists and gun nuts love a protest?

Fact: nearly twice as many people—some 66%—want the country to stay on lockdown until we see a significant drop in new cases , as want the country up and open so they can “get back to normal” and risk their lives and the lives of those around them. Freedumbs.

Fact. You don’t think it’ll happen again? Look at Kentucky this week … the state had set a grim record with 273 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the highest single-day rise to date, right after protesters took to the streets throughout the week to call for the state to be reopened. It’s Philadelphia 1918, only with protestors and not Boy Scouts.

So, it’s gun nuts, racists, Republicans and faux Christians who want to reopen the country. But who else … billionaires. Big corporations want the economy opened because they’re losing money and they have only so many billions on which to love; the people who got the biggest bailout from the government, while you got $1200, want you to go back to work because they may have to sell their second, third or fourth home if this keeps up. Freedumbs.

And it’s _____, too. Partially because he’s a billionaire, I kid, he’s a millionaire, but mostly because he wants to get reelected in November. Let that sink in; he cares not a whit for the 41000+ who’ve already died—has anyone heard him express any real sorrow for the sick and the dead—and wants the country reopened so we can be like Philadelphia, and other major cities, in 1918, who held parades and then watched as the virus went on to kill nearly 50 million people worldwide. Freedumbest.

Is that worth it? Is being able to go to Starbucks worth it? Is being able to win an election worth it? Is lining your pockets with more coins than any one person will ever need worth it?

No. People dying is not worth it.

Stay home; stay safe; thank the helpers; vote.