An interesting film was released in 1976, Network, that surprisingly resonated with many people. The line that everyone remembers was said again and again by one of the main stars, and repeated by the “common man” and of course common woman (although what woman do you know who is common?), including people in the film leaning out their windows and shouting: I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!

It was the year before I graduated from high school and I loved the film. Often feeling like an underdog in my teens, and despite the shouter of the line in Network being a fallen television man in his 60s, Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, became a hero I could relate to. Oh, and I also loved Faye Dunaway’s clothing and suddenly wanted to dress like her (although seeing her braless in a silk blouse in 2021 made me grab my boobs say, ouch, and think she might get a note from HR on inappropriate dress for the workplace; although few would have the guts to say that to Faye, in character or out!).

Lately, I have had a growing urge to follow in Howard Beale’s footsteps, because I too am mad as hell and tired of taking this, anymore. That is, the disease of stupidity in an alarming number of Americans, led by the largest group of Republican assholes who ever shit all over the American people. As a traveler in the Twitter-verse I know I’m far from being alone. There is more virulent anger in Twitter’s feeds than can be contained within its stream. I’m one of the perps.

Having retired exactly one year ago, my new found freedom of not having to watch my Ps and Qs has been a great release. Now I can say whatever I want. And I’m pissed off, mad as hell you might say.

Those who won’t get a COVID vaccine are putting thousands of lives at risk every day, including innocent children, healthcare professionals and millions of others. Ok, if you have a medical reason you can’t get vaccinated, fine, you get a pass. But no one else does. Seventy years ago, when we were, some might say, less sophisticated than we are now, Americans clamored for the polio vaccine and other inoculations like chicken pox and various flu strains, because children and adults were dying or becoming cripplingly sick. Children literally lived in iron lungs, dying as much from isolation and lack of their loved ones’ touch as they did from polio. Cemeteries were filled with headstones shaped like baby cribs or with marble dolls or balls or rattles on them. Mothers were torn from their families and put into sanitariums that only treated polio victims, sometimes never returning to their babies. Fathers struggled to be mother too; older children in the family became surrogate mothers when they should have still been playing with dolls or riding bikes to the lake with their friends in the summer.

Now, seventy years later when we have the ability to stop our current raging pandemic, a bunch of fucking idiots won’t take the vaccine, most just because someone who is not a Trumpazoid told them to get it. Yeah, idiots. Anyone who voted for Trump is an idiot. You did this. Don’t fool yourself. YOU DID THIS!

I know there are indigenous and people of color who are wary of taking the vaccine because of past history of racists medical practices and experiments on their relatives and ancestors. But get this: yes, it’s a conspiracy, but its the people who hate you leading the pack of those trying to kill you this time. Not President Biden who is imploring you to get vaccinated. I’m sorry you have been put in the position of having to chose here, but the choice is pretty simple: lose your life or that of a loved one because you can’t move away from the pain of your people’s history, or fall in lock step with those who truly hate you for the color of your skin and stay unvaccinated. This is a moment.

Yes, this is a confusing time full of contradictory information. But we are all adults here. You should know enough about your personal safety to know when you should or shouldn’t wear a mask rather than taking advice from authorities who change their guidance every five minutes. The CDC should be ashamed of themselves for their constant flipping on mask wearing, showing a lack of expertise as well as courage. I certainly don’t rely on them when it comes to masks. I look at the percent of people not vaccinated and the incidence, although quite low, of break-through COVID cases for those who are vaccinated, and choose to wear my mask indoors when I go to the grocery store. You won’t find me on an airplane or at a concert or any other crowded place yet. I’m not taking the chance. I live with someone recovering from cancer who has another surgery in a few weeks. I’m not bringing COVID into my house. If you’re smart enough to make decisions about other safety precautions, like wearing a seatbelt and not drinking bleach, then you can make your own decision about wearing a mask without someone telling you to. Wise up.

When I went to Catholic elementary school for eight years, the nuns always said you should love everyone, although you might not like them. Hell with that. I can’t love or like or feel pity for anti-vaxers. You all just make me mad as hell and I can’t take this anymore. I’m done weighing whether I should try harder to understand your point of view, or feel pity when you die of COVID in the hospital, or you kill other people in your family because you won’t get the vaccine. The last vestige of being a good Catholic girl has been crushed. Fuck you.

From Lady Proverbs, somewhere on the Oregon Coast.

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