The Atlantic published a piece titled “Let’s Declared a Pandemic Amnesty.” It was authored by Emily Oster, Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs at Brown University, who wants forgiveness between “one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID.”
To say the response was an exceedingly robust rejection of her plea would be an understatement.
Perhaps this is the best take, underscoring that if we forgot everything that has happened since February 2020, is that such amnesty would be “toxic forgiveness.”
(LANGUAGE WARNING)
After watching this video, I was reminded of the “Three R’s” of forgiveness promoted by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, talk show host, and author. She was one of my must-listen-to hosts in the early 1990s until she was cancel-cultured because gay activists decided to distort some of her statements.
The approach Schlessinger offered to avoid “toxic forgiveness” involved Remorse (expressing real regret), Repair (taking action to fix the consequences of behavior), and Not Repeating the action.
Let’s look at the current state of pandemic dynamics and what we have for each of the R’s.
REMORSE
The only remorse I can sense is the panic of the progressive activists as they see the scale of the retribution for the over two years of bureaucratic bullying and media misinformation that Americans have been treated to. Being sorry for receiving the just punishment to which you are due is NOT remorse.
Real remorse in this instance would be Big Pharma executives issuing heartfelt apologies for asserting the vaccine would stop infection. True regret would be the journalists and entertainers who mocked those who challenged their assertions (correctly), confessing how wrong they were in a sincere manner. Believable contrition would be bureaucrats from all aspects of government that pushed stringent pandemic policies jettisoning any of the current practices related to controlling people…including vaccine mandates.
REPAIR
The next phase, repair, is certainly challenging.
How do you bring back the seniors who were consolidated into hospitals, where the more robust, early version of the virus was allowed to spread and claim so many lives?
How do you give back the missed birthday parties, weddings, graduations, and other life celebrations that were canceled in an attempt to contain the uncontainable virus?
How do you restore the reputation and accounts of epidemiologists, medical doctors, and other biological safety professionals who challenged many of the assertions being made in the press…but who were subsequently canceled because they went against the preferred narrative of the day?
How do you recover the careers of those fired for not getting vaccinated or the education of those prohibited from attending schools and universities for not getting the injection?
How do people reclaim the consolation of religious services missed in the quest to “stop the spread”?
How do you return lost developmental and learning progress to children after they were hindered by ineffective rules that were often retained despite not stopping the virus and only harmed the kids?
Finally, if research and evidence eventually prove that the vaccines have caused severe cardiac effects in young people and other significant, adverse health effects in healthy adults (who might have weathered covid infections with monitored symptoms), how are those lives restored?
Some damage is just too devastating that repair is not possible. One little article in “The Atlantic” doesn’t count.
Not Repeating
Of the three factors meaning forgiveness, this is the one I most doubt can ever be achieved.
Can promises made by the current politicians, bureaucrats, and elite media not to repeat the fear-mongering, power-grabbing, liberty-crushing antics really be trusted? I think not, as their sorrow will not be because of what they have done but because they may no longer have the power or influence to do so again.
In conclusion, the only rational response to Oster’s article is to “Just Say No” and to vote on Nov. 8th accordingly.
Those who were responsible for the pandemic travesty need to be held accountable. Anything less is toxic forgiveness.
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