Mind Changing Events

1956

I was a sixth grader at Thomas Jefferson elementary school when our two sixth-grade teachers decided to hold a “presidential election” just like the grownups. The week before November 6th, we made patriotic themed art and learned about the role of voting in a democracy.

At home, politics was a frequent topic. My father was an ardent Democrat; my Grandma Rosie said that “If Stevenson couldn’t manage a marriage, how could he run the country?” My mother remained neutral and said that after working all day at the polls, which she did for years, was enough politics for her.

Unlike today, despite the diverse political talk that took place around our dining room table, it would not have occurred to us to shun any family member for their beliefs. It’s a value we seem to have lost.

When voting day came, like my father, I cast my ballot for Adlai Stevenson, the Democrat running for a second time against Dwight Eisenhower. When all of the six-grade votes were counted, Eisenhower would have had a 100% landslide, save for one Stevenson vote – mine.

Due to the rain, my new saddle Oxford shoes were getting caked with mud as I was chased off the school playground by three boys. “You dirty Democrat” they yelled after I’d told two friends in my class that I’d voted for Stevenson. I did not “Like Ike” for many years.

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Later, during the Vietnam War, when Ike’s warning was revived, I changed my mind about old Ike. I mostly stayed a loyal Democrat until the Clintons and others came along. Then I became what we’re now calling a “spoiler,” disloyal to our imperious two-party system.

2024

Fast forward to 2024 and here I am again, changing my political views. If anyone had told me that I would send Republican Senators Rand Paul, Jim Jordan, Ron Johnson, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene thank you emails I’d have laughed. But I have and glad I did. My father, however, is probably spinning….

I wrote them not because I agree with some of their ideas. I wrote to them for their committee leadership on behalf of the American people. They are working on the issues that are of the utmost importance to me.

One is the Biden administration’s overreach of free speech, censorship, and collusion with big tech, mainstream press, and social media companies. This and several other First Amendment cases will be decided by the Supreme Court.

Equally important is that during the pandemic, when various people voiced their concerns about how the government was managing all aspects of the crisis, they were labeled conspiracy theorists, liars, and dangerous. Meanwhile, the White House, mainstream media, federal health agencies such as the FDA, the CDC, and the NIH shut down debate. The lockdowns, remote leaning, and later the vaccines were guaranteed either necessary or “safe and effective.” Any other low-cost, time-tested and/or new ideas, even the promotion of Vitamin D, were prohibited. If medical personnel spoke up with concerns about what they were seeing in their practices, they were either silenced or fired just when hospitals were overwhelmed.

We are only beginning to learn what happens when fear and pitting one group against another tears at the fabric of a nation. “A house divided cannot stand,” said President Lincoln.

While I’m finishing up my nonfiction/personal account of the broken U.S. healthcare “system,” I continue to read books and gather articles. What I’m finding is mainly about the corruption and profits being made by oligarchs (Bill Gates, the primary funder of the WHO), many federal agency heads (Dr. Fauci et al), and exclusive vaccine deals that made pharma CEOs untold millions overnight.

The latest book I’ve read is The War on Ivermectin: The Medicine That Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic by Dr. Pierre Kory. But it is about far more than that.

His eye-opening journey through the pandemic is both discouraging and promising.  His book is not about being vaxxed or un-vaxxed, devoted to mask wearing or not, and all of the other issues that have been raised. What this book is about is how mismanaged (at first) and then how deliberately controlled the medical and governmental response to Covid-19 was.

Bret Weinstein, PhD, and an evolutionary biologist sums up Kory’s book in this way:

“The COVID-19 pandemic changed the world. Among the most profound changes was a coup by public health bureaucrats against doctors and the traditional practice of medicine. Medical professionals and scientists were told how to think, and those who bristled at the new order, or at the broken logic it dispensed, were ridiculed, censured, and cast out.”

There is so much to this book—eye-opening, informative without prejudice, honest and compassionate, even inspiring. But always there is the struggle, the risks, and the sorry state of our medical system, like a dark undertow of loss and sorrow for millions of Americans just below the surface.

No matter our politics or lack thereof, Kory’s book provides us with a look at what was happening behind the scenes. What I came away, even more convinced, is how civil discourse and critical thinking for yourself and your family is essential regardless of what side of the manufactured divide you’re on.

Dr. Kory is truly a hero without a cape, along with many other doctors and why congressional leadership investigating what worked and what failed during the pandemic and protecting our First Amendment rights of free speech are so important.