The Rogue Speaks:
One spring and summer, back in the 50's, a polio epidemic broke out in America. We were young--in grammar school--and polio was horribly frightening to our parents. We stayed at home, and were not allowed to go to Sunday school, or play with our friends. We were not allowed to leave our yards, until the epidemic had ended.
Thanks to the work of Drs. Salk and Sabin, polio has been eradicated in America, and actually in most of the world, except Pakistan. There is a polio epidemic in Pakistan, and the World Health Organization sent health-care workers there to administer the polio vaccine in order to save the lives of children and adults. Most of those workers are women, who went door to door administering the liquid vaccine to children.
So far, more than eight of those workers have been shot by a militant extremist group, namely the Taliban, who is certain that the immunization is a plot by the CIA to either kill or sterilize the Pakistani people. The United Nations has suspended the vaccinations on Wednesday, even though polio is endemic to Pakistan, and the country now suffers a serious health crisis.
The Taliban is an Islamic fundamentalist religious/political group that is found primarily in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Muslim groups who interpret Islam in a kind and gentle way have been highly critical of the Taliban and its interpretation of Islamic law, and especially of its brutal treatment of women. Recently, a 15 year old girl, Malala Yousufzai, was shot in the head by the Taliban for speaking out in support of education for girls.
There are many fundamentalist political/religious groups in the world today, and they are not all followers of Islam. In my opinion, any fundamentalist group who has no tolerance for the beliefs of others, and who seeks to control an entire population and spew disdain and hatred in the face of any people who would not be controlled by them and follow their way of life should be driven out of existence. There will never be Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men as long as anyone is persecuted in the name of religion.
That's my view, and I'm stickin' to it! Now I'm going out to cut pine boughs for my mantle. I'm hoping it will hide the pet odors that now seem to be everywhere in my house. Rod thinks is just my imagination.
This is a MUST READ:
This post is linked to Alphabe-Thursday
11 comments:
I saw this in the paper and was dismayed. The world is a terrifying place, at times, and I don't understand 98 perent of it. But I must hope -- there is nothing else for it.
Amen. You've said it all and I agree 100%
nothing else needs to be said ... i agree, totally and completely.
I agree that fundamentalism of any kind that denies others the right to think and/or be educated is just plain wrong. But how can we influence fundamentalists who refuse to be educated? Just saying.
All these extremists have never read the Koran ! Or they just picked out what it suited to them and changed it. It's nowhere written that women have to be treated like that ! Not even forced to wear a burka ! They use the ignorance of the people who can't read or write !
Polio is a terrible disease. One of my friends died at 10 ! It was horrible. And one of my best friends had polio when she was 3 years old and today one leg is 4 cm shorter then the other and she had to have I don't know how many surgeries !
Judy, This is wonderfully written, and it is so current and should be on the minds of all of us who just labor under a stupid congress.
Kudos!
Merry Christmas!
I like your view, Judie.
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Hadn't heard about this --very disturbing. Thanks for giving us the heads up.
Amen. Amen. Amen. But not the pet odors. ;)
Excellent writing! Look at the Westboro Baptist CHurch. A group of absolutely totally nut cases running around terrorizing the innocent and hurting. What a sad sad world we live in and yet our government allows it all to go on.
A local weather lady here is a relative of Dr. Sabin. What a small world!
Their work, Sabin and Salk was remarkable. My SIL Joyce (married to my oldest brother) survived polio as a child. you would never know it today!
Our world is very sad. My hubby always says why are gangs not against the law? They run around terrorizing innocent people and nothing is done.
My father was right. The bible says good would be evil and evil good. I see it everywhere today!
Please.
Please.
Run for governor.
For president.
For something.
You speak so eloquently and explain things in ways I can understand.
I have all this warring emotion in my heart over the state of the world today. I just can never quite express it.
I wonder if the pet odor is in the carpet pads?
It seems like you can never, ever get that out.
Love your writing as always Miss Judie.
We will have to catch up now that the chaos of the end of December is through!
Happy New Year.
Thank you for linking.
A+
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