The Harried Mystic

Mary Mallon was an Irish cook who was responsible for infecting 53 people with Typhoid fever in the early 1900s. She was forcibly quarantined not once, but twice, as an asymptomatic carrier of the illness.

Mary persistently refused to accept responsibility for being a vector of the bacterial infection. She refused to acknowledge her condition even after numerous positive lab tests. Like today’s Republicans, facts were inconsequential. On the contrary, she complained bitterly that she was being victimized. This is a bit like those who complain that their rights are being assaulted when mandated to wear a mask.

What earned her the nickname was her complete disregard for the illness and death that she caused. After release from quarantine the first time, she changed her name and returned to cooking ( despite having agreed to not do so as a condition of release). Having infected others, she was arrested and quarantined once again. Mary’s selfish mindset is now being boldly replayed by virtually the entire Republican Party.

Republican governors and congressional representatives politicized mask wearing with intent to deliberately foster widespread infection. This was all in the pursuit of the so-called herd immunity scenario. Tragically, reaching that goal would require the loss of more of our sisters and brothers than any other nation. These cold-hearted monsters were ok with that. We have reached 3500 deaths in the last 24 hours!

This is sociopathic behavior perpetrated on a National scale.

It amplifies the flagrant disregard for human life and absence of personal responsibility of Mary Mallon. It does so by a factor of 5850!

She killed 53 people. We have suffered the loss of 310065 souls as of today, and Trump and his party have nothing whatsoever to say about that. Fifty three deaths in the early 1900s was considered an atrocity. How far the value of life has fallen!

US Republican political leaders are guilty of negligent homicide.

Their flagrant denial of science and medical expertise is the most grotesque form of political malfeasance. The evidence is becoming clear that the Whitehouse deliberately strong-armed the CDC. In doing so, they have blood on their hands and should be charged with crimes against humanity for gaming the Nation and playing with the lives of men, women and children ( see the James Clyburn memo).

We need a post- inaugural commission to investigate what is unsurprisingly coming to light about the deliberate choices that this Whitehouse made to “sit out” enacting a National strategy anchored in public health best practices. I have no doubt that much more will be coming out in the weeks and months to come that will make clear the true depths of the National blight of the Trump era.

Our dead deserve justice. Those who acted with such blatant disregard for human life need to pay a price for doing so. It doesn’t appear that that will come in the form of a high political cost. Republicans may, when all is said and done in Georgia, succeed in retaining the Senate majority. They also won back most of their Senate seats and did pretty well in the House.

Absent a high political cost, one hopes that the lives of our deceased will nonetheless be honored with justice. This should happen through more than the offer of prayers and best wishes, and moving cathedral bell-ringing ( though that’s all lovely). We need indictments of those cruel officials whose deliberate choices lead directly to untimely and unnecessary loss of life. These malicious officials should, at the very least, feel profound shame at the consequences of their action and inaction.

This Holiday Season is awash in far too many tears at the loss of dear ones. It did not have to be this bad.

Competent and caring leadership would have produced a very different outcome. We should be ashamed at the state of our country’s health when compared with that of other Nations where action was swift, decisive and way more effective.

Shame on Donald Trump, his Cabinet, and the complicit Senate Republicans! History will be unkind to them. It will speak of the legacy of these years with reference to corruption, hatred, violence, atrocity, unmanaged pandemic, fascism, and the weakening of democracy and global alliances.

Trump defined himself as a “stable genius”! So, I suppose Stalin was deeply compassionate? I can’t wait for the National nightmare to end, though I fully recognize that it only recedes for a short while.

© The Harried Mystic, 2020 and Br. Anton, TSSF. and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.