Other evil people have spread lies on line and on Fox News. Trump's mishandling of the pandemic caused over 700,000 deaths in the U.S. So well said! Discouraging to think our local elected officials are either not bright enough to recognize truth or are devious enough to ignore it for personal gain. To me, the saddest thing is that people I know to be intelligent and (usually) reasonable are in the thick of it fueling the fire. With only 56% fully vaccinated and two more recent COVID deaths, our county is hardly a safe place in which to live and socialize. Thank you, Les Francis, for pointing out that it is our locally elected leaders responsibility to serve all of their constituents and make decisions that are for the public good. He is now retired and living with his wife, Shari, and three Brittany spaniels. He also has extensive experience in the private sector as a public affairs consultant for corporations and nonprofits.

Les Francis is a resident of Camino who spent more than four decades in Washington, D.C., with stints as a staff person on Capitol Hill and in the White House. We would all be better served were it so. I fervently wish our local leaders were more interested in their вЂњeulogy virtuesвЂќ and less obsessed with their rГ©sumГ© - or reelection - ones. TheyвЂ™re the virtues that get talked about at your funeral, the ones that exist at the core of your being вЂ¦ вЂќ

The second comes from the contemporary conservative writer and commentator David Brooks, who in the introduction to his book, вЂњ The Road to Character ,вЂќ writes about вЂњrГ©sumГ© virtues and eulogy virtues.вЂќ As Brooks puts it, вЂњвЂ¦ rГ©sumГ© virtues are the ones you list on your rГ©sumГ©, the skills that you bring to the job market and that contribute to external success. One is from Edmund Burke, the Anglo-Irish statesman of the 18 th century who observed, вЂњ Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.вЂќ In addition to MoynihanвЂ™s wisdom cited earlier, a couple other quotes come to mind as I reflect on what is going on in our county. A loud, highly motivated but distinct minority of the citizenry is seeking to drive public health policy locally and across the country вЂ¦ and they are gaining traction. Third, too many political and community leaders are reluctant to, or are afraid to, stand up to the mob. And there is no vaccine - save for persistent, relentless discussion and argument - to protect the civic health of our society. Second, and even more disturbing, we now live in a society where an alarming number of people resist or deny objective truths, a country wherein we have вЂњdemocratized factsвЂќ and see no harm in fueling and propagating silly myths, blatant untruths and crazy conspiracy theories. Unvaccinated people were 20 times more likely to experience COVID-19-associated death than fully vaccinated people.ДonвЂ™t believe Texans? How about authorities in another rural county in California then?.Unvaccinated people were 13 times more likely to become infected with COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people.Key findings from the Texas study showed that Sept.

In early November, the Texas Department of Health Services - Texas, I repeat вЂљ red, conservative Texas - revealed that both infection and mortality rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated people are vastly different. MoynihanвЂ™s admonition about not confusing opinions with facts. They weave conspiracy theories out of myths and misinformation.ДЄs a point of reference, letвЂ™s go back to Sen. Our supervisors, вЂњledвЂќ (and I use the term loosely) by Hidahl, were pushed into their position by a loud, radical and well-organized collection of county residents - a minority bent on instilling fear in the rest of us.

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