Take good care if you are going to be leaving. I hope you have many friends.
Wild World by Cat Stevens
This is for people who have chosen to quit their jobs instead of submitting to a vaccine mandate.
It is impossible to know how many of you are actually out there, but your name has been popping up everywhere lately. A nearly 30-year-old veteran of San Jose's Police Department gave up his badge to comply with COVID-19 requirements. He is joined by an Army lieutenant colonel and some airline employees. The choral director of San Francisco Symphony, Major League Baseball executives, and workers at the Orange County tax collectors office, Florida. And, of course, many healthcare professionals.
For the rest of us, those who have missed concerts, restaurants, and other people's faces, and the ones who are tired of living under pandemic conditions, here is a response: Goodbye.
Here are two more: Good riddance.
This is not to be minimized. A hospital in New York's upstate announced that it would need to stop delivering babies due to resignations from its maternity staff. The threat of serious consequences is real. Your decision to quit is a positive step in removing the gullible and conspiracy-addled, logic-impaired, stubbornly ignorant, and the logic-impaired. This is not all.
This has been a long road. Some of us react like we've woken up on the wrong side. One man complained that there is no freedom anymore in video clip that aired recently on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. The clip was from 1980s and the guy had just been ticketed for not wearing his seatbelt.
It is a common refrain. You can't smoke in a movie theatre. Can't turn up the music until it causes headaches at 2 AM? You can't read the Ten Commandments in courtroom. You can't post the Ten Commandments in a courtroom. This is not freedom. It's anarchy.
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Most people don't get frustrated by your intransigence. It often has no direct effect on us. The Daily Show clip shows that the guy was not asking for permission to drive on a highway with his face. Now you want to put at risk our healthcare system as well as our personal lives.
Don't be angry! You are not the only one.
Your anger is dumb and ours is not. Your anger is about being forced to do something that you don't want to do. That's not something new. You don't need to be vaccinated if you want to travel or start school. You are also required to mow your yard, cover your backsides, and wear a seatbelt. You are mad at the government for not doing what they have always done.
The rest of us were mad at you. This could have ended by now, but you're the reason it hasn't.
We were happy that President Biden decided to stop asking nice questions and started requiring vaccinations wherever he could. We were also happy when employers followed his lead. If that's a problem, then sayonara, auf wiedersehen, and good luck. We will miss you, we are sure. You're asking us to make a choice between your petulance or our lives.
This is a terrible choice.
