Opportunist

 

On May 5, 2021, on Morning Joe on MSNBC, the US CDC Director was asked about the terrible state of affairs in India.  India is currently enduring an overwhelming wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths.  Director Rochelle Walensky was asked, if she was worried about current and future variants of COVID posing a threat to the US population.  Especially, considering the fact that the US is only partially vaccinated.

Rochelle Walensky replied that the COVID-19 virus “is an opportunist.”

For me at least, that description calls to mind predatory criminals, looking for opportunities to commit their crimes.  I immediately had the image in my head, of a sleazy, nineteen-seventies roving playboy/rapist, seeking out likely victims at a cocktail party.

This menacing image is in stark contrast, to the blissful vision of unfettered “Freedom” that is present-day, partially-vaccinated, yet completely wide-open Florida.

Here, leaders throw the ball to individuals, urging them to take full responsibility for their own safety. They may choose to vaccinate or not, as the case may be.  Utterly up to the individual.  Meanwhile, these same officials are busy dismantling or abandoning preventative measures, designed to  keep the virus at bay, while we move closer to eradicating it. 

The mantra is something like:  If you get vaccinated, great.  You’ll get a mild case, at the worst.  If you don’t vaccinate, well, that’s your choice.  You assume the risk.  If you bring COVID-19 home to someone, that’s their choice.  They chose to live with you, after all.

The bell of empathy has tolled its last.

This mantra of the full-bore fully-open movement echoes past attitudes toward rape.  Blaming the victim.  If you choose to wear a short skirt, it’s no wonder if something happens to you.  If you choose to get drunk at a party, you have no one to blame but yourself.  People used to say “she asked for it.”

I think we have mostly gotten past these attitudes regarding rape, no small thanks to the Me, Too movement.   Now, it is commonly accepted that rape is a crime of violence., and no woman “asks for it.”  But it is never far from our thoughts, that rape is a crime of opportunity..

The final line in each stanza of my poem says, that the narrator’s victims self-select.  By that, I mean only, that from the virus’ point of view, his prey is “asking for it.” I certainly do not personally believe that victims of COVID, vaccinated or not, deserve what they get.  That would be a particularly heartless attitude.  Yet, it is an attitude being conveyed across the airwaves in this state, as people continue to unmask, with abandon.

The government does not get off scot-free.  They bear the brunt of the blame for this casual, preference-based attitude towards vaccination, in my opinion.  Florida opened long before it was safe.  Now, the state seems hell-bent, on allowing people to choose for themselves. Even on a matter as significant, as whether the virus will persist in our country.

People who “choose” not to vaccinate do not do so in a vacuum.  Their world is filled with voices that convince them, that not vaccinating is a valid, reasonable choice. And these voices are echoed shamelessly by trusted people in power, and legitimized, in the repeating.  The mantra of choice is echoed hypocritically, even by those who, in the interest of self-preservation, would never choose such a foolish course as non-vaccination, themselves.

Rape was tolerated for so long in our prudish society, partly because it was unspeakable. But more shameful, perhaps, was the fact that society condoned the consent-less pursuit of women by men.

Today, there is no limit on our freedom to to speak about the dangers of not being vaccinated (although it may fall on deaf ears.)  But as a nation, we can’t seem to shake that notion, that “freedom” means never being compelled to do anything we don’t feel like doing.   That’s like saying the notion of “Free Love” includes rape. 

Until we strike a rational balance between individual freedom and societal well-being, we will never shake this virus.

Unless, of course, a Fourth Wave proves convincing, even to non-believers.

Please vaccinate yourself and those you love.  And don’t let down your guard.  Thanks for coming by to read.

 

 

I am an opportunist.

Slinking by, with drink in hand,

Sniffing out the poor, the grand,

Any, who lets down her guard,

Any, who’s not trying hard.

I take advantage where I may.

They self-select, my prey.

 

I am an opportunist.

I gladly go, where I’m invited,

Where advances (unrequited)

Are not forcibly rebuffed,

And no one tells me, plain:  “Enough!”

I take advantage where I may.

They self-select, my prey.

 

I am an opportunist.

If you lay down a Welcome Mat,

I’ll come right in.  And that is that.

Where many gather, young and old,

And fail to fasten, firm, the bolt,

There, too, am I.  Like God, that way.

I take advantage where I may.

They self-select, my prey.

 

Copyright 2021 Andrea LeDew

 

For a poem about abdicating decision-making power in favor of another, read You Choose.

For a short-short throwback to the seventies, related to Me, Too, read Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

For a brooding poem about unspeakable but ubiquitous sexism, read  It.