What a week! There I was climbing out from under my desk, when I had to scramble back again. And it’s hard typing in a fetal position.
*
Two weeks ago, faced with a major outbreak of measles cases, the Governor of the State of Washington declared a state of emergency.* I immediately acted as I—a child during the cold war years—was trained in school to respond to a declaration of a state of emergency (there might be nuclear weapons raining down soon): I ducked under my desk until the all-clear signal. Which fortunately finally arrived on Tuesday just as my spine was threatening to imitate a camel’s hump. Darla Shine, the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine and the siren of the anti-vaxxers, was the Lorelei who lured me out from below the desk—but was it onto the rocks of vaccination scaremongering or to the haven of an angst-free mind?
Here’s her tweet**:
“Bring back our #ChildhoodDiseases they keep you healthy & fight cancer”? Well, that settled it. An outbreak of measles was just the start to a healthy and cancer-free future. No need for radiation; no need for chemo; no need for surgery.
Glorious! I stood up tall, stretching my hunched back as far as it could go.
All clear!
Until Friday.
*
“We are going to be signing today, and registering, a national emergency,” proclaimed Donald Trump, standing in the White House Rose Garden. My god, we were under the threat of “an invasion of drugs, an invasion of gangs, an invasion of people.”***
Back under the desk.
*
Trump declared that he was declaring the national emergency in order to secure funds to build his “beautiful” wall—the wall that would keep out those nasty Latin Americans. Latin Americans, who, if they had the opportunity, would presumably have their children gleefully vaccinated.
And who, if they have been following the news about the measles emergency in the state of Washington, would, one expect, have had their minds changed about the wall and are happy that it will—if Trump’s bluster can be trusted—actually be built.
How reassuring for the Latin Americans that a wall will keep those contagious gringos trapped behind it.
***
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