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I am saddened by some of what I am hearing and seeing as we have tried to politicize something that should be a community concern and responsibility. Our nation doesn't need to be more divisive. We need to be working together to make our nation stronger. One way to do that is to help overcome this pandemic in our nation. That means for each one of us to do what we can including getting a vaccine if we are eligible and wearing a mask in our schools and inside other places of larger gatherings.
I grew up in a time period when deaths of young children were more common. I myself (though I obviously don't remember any of this) spent the first two years of my life on death's doorstep. My mother spent many sleepless nights trying to help me stay alive in any way she could. My doctor wanted to keep me alive too and began to administer to me every day what was then considered adult dosages of a relatively new drug called penicillin. My parents didn't threaten to sue him if it didn't work. They simply thanked him for trying. And they thanked God for penicillin. Because of this, I am blessed to be alive today.
During some of my illnesses and my two older brothers' illnesses, the local Department of Health would come to our home and put a quarantine sticker on our house. Mom explained that this was being done not to take away our rights but to protect other children in our community from getting sick. It wasn't seen as an infringement on their parental rights but as our civic responsibility to help others stay healthy.
Also, as vaccines became available and as I became healthy enough to get them, my parents made sure that every one of their children received them. We were told that we might hurt a little or feel a little sick as a result of the vaccine (and we would have a scar on our arm from the smallpox vaccine) but the vaccine would protect us and help us survive.
Because the Greatest Generation, that included my parents, saw this as a blessing and a responsibility for protecting their children as well as other children and not some attempt by the medical community or government to take away their freedoms or parental rights, people now live longer. Diseases like polio, mumps, smallpox and others are being kept in check. My wife and I made sure our children were given these vaccines as well. Never did we see these vaccines as a threat to our or our children's freedoms or our parental rights -- even when schools mandated them. In fact, we saw it as our duty for both our children and for all of the children of our community.
We are so privileged to have the blessings of these vaccines. We are so blessed to have medical scientists who have discovered how to help us combat so many diseases. COVID-19 vaccine is now one of those great blessings. If everyone who is eligible to have the vaccine would get the vaccine this new surge of COVID-19 would not be happening. The scary thing now is that the new variants of COVID-19 are infecting our younger population as well as unvaccinated adults. For the love of our nation and our children, we should be lining up to get the COVID-19 vaccine if we have not already done so.
For the love of our children and our schools, masks should be worn in our schools in order to protect our students and staff. These are just simple but effective acts of caring for one another. These are just simple but proper duties for us as concerned citizens of the United States.
BOB WALLACE
Williamsport
Submitted via email