Kōan Fragments of a Distorted World #12 (with a nod to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s book "Pictures of the Gone World")

1)
President G. W. Bush "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."

USAToday headline “Biden to the vaccinated: 'You are highly protected.' Biden to the unvaccinated: Be 'alarmed.'”

2)
According to statistics, approximately 7.9 billion human beings minus approximately (as of this writing) 308,158,876 have not been infected by the virus. Deaths: 5,507,604 Recovered: 259,656,318.[1] And that’s for almost two years.

“The research by Lelieveld et al (2019) published in PNAS is a comprehensive recent study of indoor and outdoor air pollution: The authors estimate that in total 8.8 million die prematurely due to air pollution every year. This most comprehensive measure of the death toll includes the air pollution from anthropogenic and natural sources of air pollution, such as desert dust.”[2]

Which raises the monster question: Why was air pollution barely in the news before the corona-virus? An educated guess-answer says: something to do with the industrialized world economy.

3)
Jesus is partially banned in the Netherlands. Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

“Public gatherings of more than two people are prohibited under restrictions imposed by the Netherlands in an effort to prevent the Omicron variant of the coronavirus overwhelming an already strained healthcare system.”[3]

4)
From an article “Cuba Defeats Covid-19 with Learning, Science, and Unity”:[4]

Cuba, known for some of the best and most compassionate doctors in the world, “has sent, or is preparing to send, vaccines to Vietnam, Venezuela, Iran, and Nicaragua. ... Cuba’s achievement in producing anti-Covid-19 vaccines is remarkable in the face of shortages of equipment, reagents, and supplies due to the U.S. economic blockade. U.S. and Cuban assumptions regarding vaccination programs and other public health measures are different. Vaccine production in Cuba is a matter of the common good, pure and simple. In United States, government-subsidized manufacturers will be making huge profits...”

Are not the so-called communists more democratic than a so-called democracy?

And what do the labels matter when people are caring for people?

5)
There have been reports of shortages of hospital beds for dealing with the pandemic and other illnesses.

Previously approved by Congress and the Senate, “President Joe Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, for fiscal year 2022, which authorizes $770 billion in defense spending. ... The NDAA has become law every year for six decades.[5]

From a September, 2021, article: “Nearly 8 months after declaring “war” on the coronavirus as he [Biden] took office... Biden's war on virus becomes war on unvaccinated.”[6]

6)
A headline, from January, 2020, reads: “The US Has Been at war 225 out of 243 years since 1776[7]

How does a country that has been at war more than “92 percent of the time” unlearn that behavior?

NOTES:
[1] See here.

[2] “Data Review: How many people die from air pollution?”

[3] “Dutch police disperse anti-lockdown protesters in Amsterdam”

[4] See here.

[5] “President Biden signs $770 billion defense bill”

[6] “Analysis: Biden Takes Fight to Unvaccinated in Virus Battle"

[7] See here. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/595752-the-us-has-been-at-war-225-out-of-243-years-since-1776

Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. Check out his newest book Moving Through The Empty Gate Forest: inside looking out. In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. His website is here.

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