Dahlman: Conspiracy, fighting ‘big brother’ while ignoring the professionals
By Medicine Hat News Opinion on December 26, 2020.
This time should be a celebration of all that we are thankful for from the past year, no matter what your spiritual beliefs are. However, this year has been anything but a celebration for most. We can try to learn from all that we have been through but for many this year, it has been an emotional roller coaster. Frustration doesn’t even begin to describe it. With all of the uncertainty and anxiety of COVID-19 and everything that goes with it, conspiracy theorists are having a field day. False vaccines. The Great Reset. A global economic re-order by the World Economic Forum. Someone call Tom Hanks and see if he will play one of the main characters in the next movie, a la The Da Vinci Code. COVID-19 and all that it has brought with it, has many people on the brink, or well over their mental health capacities. There are rules, regulations, new orders and new laws which have altered our comfort zones. No one can get comfortable with ordinary life, let alone what all of this pandemic has already done to our professions and social lives. People have lost loved ones because of the virus, and if not directly for the virus, there are those have passed on alone because rules wouldn’t allow families to see them Ceremonies such as funerals and weddings have been severely restricted. And now this holiday time of year with Christmas, Hanukkah, etc., the one time when most people, no matter their beliefs, find time to celebrate. Except, this year we can’t celebrate and it hurts. We’ve hurt all year. That shouldn’t, or cannot, be dismissed as we need some sort of relief, but it isn’t there. It’s no one’s fault, it’s just what our world is going through. Sadly, people aren’t accepting this status quo and acting out. People have either ignored or publicly defied COVID rules to garner sympathy and attention or because they think they government has turned tyrannical. There have been protests throughout December in Calgary, Saskatoon and Regina where people are preaching civil disobedience. Then there is the high profile case where a young man in Calgary was arrested Dec. 17 for not complying with police and resisting arrest while playing hockey on an outdoor rink along with a reportedly 40 others. There have been cell phone videos of the incident where Calgary officers who asked him to comply, wouldn’t; and then tried to knock him off his skates and threatened him with a taser. “Look at those evil police”; “Look at the (fascist/communist) government trying to control us.” Two churches in Alberta, including one from Medicine Hat (Heights Baptist) was in provincial court Dec. 21 fighting it. Montreal law enforcement handed out $400,000 of tickets to a total of 269 infractions at an anti-mask rally held Dec. 20. Unreal what our own little corner of the world has turned into. I am no scientist. I don’t know how COVID-19 started. About the same way I don’t know how polio, the Spanish flu or whooping cough started. All I know is that people are dying. A lot of them. If you know someone in the health care field, ask them. Everyone knows someone in the health care field, even if it is their own doctor. Ask them: is this all a hoax? Just remember, they have either sworn to or officially abide by the Hippocratic Oath and you have not. If that isn’t enough, look at the facts. In Canada, there are 510,000 cases, 14,245 deaths. Not just by suicide, cancer, old age, heart disease or the damn flu…. 14,245 deaths due to the pandemic. In Alberta there are 90,219 and 851 deaths. In Sask. there are 13,555 and 118 deaths. Do you think makeshift morgues or treatment facilities including using space which normally go to treating children (right in Children’s hospitals) or cancer or all the operations which are being delayed is because of some hoax? The pleas from the health care professionals, family members who helplessly watched loved ones disappear or even those who have actually had it, ask them if it is a hoax and what the linger effects are? In Sweden, where they all but ignored COVID and allowed citizens to do everything they wanted to, changed to bringing in more stringent rules. In the United States, the home of Donald Trump (who, if you believe the conspiracy theorists is the only person who can stop this plot and really – you honestly trust Trump?!) almost at 18 million cases with 318,000 deaths. There are almost 77 million cases with 1.7 million who have succumbed to COVID worldwide. Those who are protesting should again remember this is being done to save lives; it is up to each of us to handle it in our ways. This is the problem, we either don’t know how because we have been blessed with an easy life and have been enabled to do whatever we want, whenever we want. Or, our lives have been so difficult that this is the final straw. We just need something to go right and this takes away from any joy we get. So if you are thumbing your nose or middle finger at the government and the medical professionals this Christmas, enjoy your time together and pray to whatever it is you worship or hope, if you have no spiritual beliefs, that actions by people like you don’t hurt anyone, including yourself. Ryan Dahlman is the Managing Editor of Prairie Post East and Prairie Post West 26-25
