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George Washington Saved Revolution with Quarantine, Inoculation Mandate

If the Founding Fathers had been antivaxers, we’d still be speaking British and obsessing over royalty—wait—that doesn’t sound right….

Dr. Andrew Ellsworth notes that, to win the Revolution, General George Washington had to keep his troops away from potential superspreaders:

Boston had an outbreak of smallpox in 1775 from British Redcoats arriving to fight the rebellion. George Washington knew very well the dangers of smallpox after having had it himself as a young man, which left scars on his face. To keep his soldiers safe, Washington did not allow anyone from Boston near his troops. Washington wrote to John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress, that he would “continue the utmost vigilance against this most dangerous enemy.” Later, when the British withdrew from Boston, Washington allowed only soldiers with immunity into the city [Dr. Andrew Ellsworth, “Honoring Our Antiviral Founding Father,” Yankton Press and Dakotan, 2021.07.06].

General Washington also required all of his troops to get vaccinated… or, in this case, variolated:

This was before the advancement of vaccinations. However, there was a procedure known as variolation, an early form of vaccination which involved exposing a cut on the recipient’s arm to a small dose of the virus, hopefully just enough to trigger immunity without causing severe illness or death. The procedure was illegal in many places including Washington’s home state of Virginia.

Washington knew they could not afford to lose more soldiers to smallpox. Thus, despite push back from the Continental Congress, Washington ordered this primitive form of vaccination for the entire army, and by the end of 1777 more than 40,000 soldiers had received it. Infection of the army dropped from 20% to 1% and lawmakers repealed bans against variolation for smallpox across the colonies [Ellsworth, 2021.07.06].

Washington’s smallpox-variolation mandate was the first mass inoculation of a military force. It saved the Revolution.

Imagine that: America’s independence depended on a national leader who took an epidemic seriously.

President Washington would tell you the same thing President Biden is telling you: Get Your Shots!

Finding the Small pox to be spreading much and fearing that no precaution can prevent it from running through the whole of our Army, I have determined that the troops shall be inoculated. This Expedient may be attended with some inconveniences and some disadvantages, but yet I trust in its consequences will have the most happy effects. Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the Army in the natural way and rage with its usual virulence we should have more to dread from it than from the Sword of the Enemy [Gen. George Washington, letter to William Shippen, Jr., 1777.02.06].

70 Comments

  1. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 12:58

    Well at least he didn’t make them wear masks. I’m waiting to see John Dales response, should be a squirming one. They still force inoculations in the military, dozens of them. Republicans want to make a covid vaccination a choice in the military. They really like this microscopic disease don’t they? They don’t want it destroyed, they can’t be like the New Zealanders. They’ll put it on the endangered species soon to protect it.

  2. John Dale 2021-07-10 14:15

    More young people have died of suicide than Covid?

    Lockdowns – the cure – is worse than the disease.

    Many elderly would rather die holding family than live in an isolated prison.

    Family is the most important thing in human existence?

  3. John Dale 2021-07-10 14:20

    Bad arguments assume the premise.

    These are not actually vaccines .. they are experimental genetic therapies.

    If the government cared about you, perhaps in addition to encouraging you to participate in this experiment, they would encourage you to take vitamin C, get vitamin D, and zinc?

    Did you know you can’t purchase vitamins with EBT?

    Wow!

    Mark, I’m not sure how I ended up in this position if not for being right about so much, but it seems the entire mind-share of SD waits with baited minds for my opinion on issues. It’s an honor that I take seriously, humbly.

    I also get a lot of out-of-state interest from some names you probably wouldn’t believe .. bigly like you wouldn’t believe, maybe like never before seen in uman history.

    Badda-bing.

    https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/micronutrient-malnutrition/about-micronutrients/why-it-matters.html

  4. John Dale 2021-07-10 14:26

    I wonder of George Washington was a Sativa man or an Indica man.

  5. John 2021-07-10 15:35

    John and Abigail Adams poignantly describe in their letters, the dread of smallpox and the “revolutionary” variolation on themselves and their children.
    The scene portrayal is here: https://www.classhook.com/resources/1830-john-adams-smallpox-inoculation

    About 180 years later President (General) Eisenhower mandated national polio vaccinations. Eisenhower threatened to federalize the entire vaccine supply and its distribution. No whimpering. No sniveling. No right-wingnut anti-vax blather. How much further can the republicant party fall?
    The disease(s) do not respect state boundaries. There MUST be a proactive federal response.
    https://theconversation.com/the-great-polio-vaccine-mess-and-the-lessons-it-holds-about-federal-coordination-for-todays-covid-19-vaccination-effort-152806

  6. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 15:57

    Well Mr. Dale you had better contact those New Zealanders to tell them their lockdown was all wrong.

  7. DaveFN 2021-07-10 15:59

    Huh? Smallpox virus that had been around since 10,000 BC was declared eradicated from the face of the earth in 1980 using what was originally an “experimental” therapy that some hare-brained 18th century Englishman came up with using matter from Sarah Nelms’ cowpox lesions injected into an 8 year old boy???

    Get Marjorie Taylor Greene and her SD avatars on this one ASAP as the unapproved Republican vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, etc., etc. COVID regimen is under serious attack by the libs.

  8. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 16:07

    John Dale, to answer your question on teenage suicide, check out the data in the Atlantic article by Tom Bartlett. The article is titled The Pandemic Suicide Crisis is Unsupported By The Data. Glad to help you out. Its from April 2021.

  9. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 16:17

    John Dale, I’m sorry all you anti vaccine people killed off your elderly, but again why wait for your inheritances right? My wife and I are traveling to Brooklyn next week to see both our kids. A week, the Met, the Cloisters, Natural History museum and a special dinner for both their birthdays. Should be a great week, we all have our shots and are feeling fearless.

  10. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 16:25

    I’m sure that George Washington used both for depression and pain. Above all he was a variolation man.

  11. mike from iowa 2021-07-10 16:39

    Family is the most important thing in human existence? BS. Winning elections no matter how it is done is the moist important thing to magats.

  12. Arlo Blundt 2021-07-10 16:55

    Well …the Founding Fathers were, almost to a man, member of the Enlightenment, men of Science. Washington revered Benjamin Rush MD, a signer of the Declaration and a cohort of Benjamin Franklin in the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. He is often called the “father of vaccination in America”.Washington read medical research journals as a part of his regular reading. John Adams argued consistently with religious objectors to various scientific break throughs. Jefferson had a laboratory at Montecello.And yes, Washington annually dedicated several acres at Mount Vernon for the cultivation of Hemp. Was it Indica or Sativa?? My research indicates it was whatever he could find, as he crossed and hybridized many of his crops and I’m assuming he did the same with Hemp. He grew it for Rope and other bindage. He grew tobacco and distilled whiskey and brewed beer. He was a very successful planter and farmer and also married the richest widow in America.

  13. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 17:22

    Arlo, he was also a better businessman than Jefferson, he freed some of his slaves upon his death. He was basically awful to them while he was alive. You know whipping, separating them from family, etc. Jefferson couldn’t do it but he did sleep with them. I’m sure this is all written down at Mt. Rushmore or taught in history classes in So. Dak.

  14. Arlo Blundt 2021-07-10 17:43

    Well..Washington’s slaves were mostly Martha’s property. At his death, he freed his slaves but left it to Martha to free her slaves at her death (she did). But he wanted Mt. Vernon to keep going as a going concern after his death and it could not run without slave labor. Montecello was a smaller operation but Jefferson couldn’t free his slaves, even his children with Sally, as they had been mortgaged along with most of the property. Washington was the gaurdian of his brother Lawrence’s grandson, a mulatto born of a Bahamian woman. After both Lawrence and his son had died, the young man came from the Bahamas to live with Washington. Under Virginia law he was a slave (he could be nothing else under Virginia law….freed slaves were expected to move to other free states or to Maryland where free slaves were allowed.) This young man was freed upon Martha’s death. Jefferson’s children moved to eastern Ohio (there were many freed slaves living in the Marietta area). their descendants live there today.

  15. Arlo Blundt 2021-07-10 17:51

    Its also relevant to Washington that as a man of the Enlightenment he was a sincere and dedicated Mason, believing in the many ancient teachings of the Masonic Code. In this, he shared his dedication to the Masonic Order with the Majority of the signers of the Declaration and Constitution.

  16. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 18:18

    Well you know Arlo, I think the world of both Washington and Jefferson, but at heavens door, which I don’t believe in by the way, you think with Washington’s owning of 163 of God’s children, they let him in? Jefferson’s concubine could have stayed in France and stayed free. It was a weird world and I don’t think anyone sweeping all that under the rug, or whitewashing as the say now is acceptable. In fact how many decades was Jefferson sexual life kept out of history? The CRT stuff from the Republicans is just the usual trying to put people in their place.

  17. John Dale 2021-07-10 19:19

    Natural immunity is the best immunity.

    The NC State team’s VACCINATED players tested positive for Covid.

    Don’t worry, the government will “take care” of you.

    The arguments have already been won.

    But I think the embarrassment is such that the losing side of the argument still wants vaccinations.

    “Thank you sir, may I have another.”
    “Thank you sir, may I have another.”
    “Thank you sir, may I have another.”

    The insanity is palpable.

  18. Porter Lansing 2021-07-10 19:32

    Insert the phrase “Says who?” after every sentence JDAle tries to float, like a turd in the pool.

    Like Anne Beal, he’s just making stuff up to impress people.

  19. Porter Lansing 2021-07-10 19:41

    If John Dale has valid facts to prop up his eccentric assertions, he should print them out, for all to see and cross check.

    I suggest everyone do as I do and stay far away from any links he tries to trick people into opening.

    There’s no vaccine or variolate for those kind of viruses.

  20. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 20:16

    Jezz John Dale your ignorance has transformed into sheer stupidity. Your arguments have only been won in your mirror.

  21. John Dale 2021-07-10 21:07

    Porter – keeping people from information to make their own decisions is one hallmark of a cult.

    But sure, stay away from my site if you’re not an adult. It’s for grown-ups.

    Don’t think I forgot that you were the one spreading false information about the contents of Plains Tribune.

    Diiiiiirrrrrty birdy!

  22. John Dale 2021-07-10 21:11

    If you can substitute the name in someone’s criticism and it’s just as effective, it’s not a very good criticism.

    For instance:

    “Jezz John Dale your ignorance has transformed into sheer stupidity. Your arguments have only been won in your mirror.”

    Becomes:

    “Jezz Mark Anderson your ignorance has transformed into sheer stupidity. Your arguments have only been won in your mirror.”

    Or,

    “If Porter Lansing has valid facts to prop up his eccentric assertions, he should print them out, for all to see and cross check.”

    The link I posted is a site that I control. I take full responsibility for it. There are no third party libraries chatting your cookies out to other unknown people. It’s privacy certified, and I do not monitor who accesses it, when, or for what purposes.

    I’m too busy reading and printing out my findings to protect from any impending Internet cultish censorship shutdowns to control information.

  23. John Dale 2021-07-10 21:16

    Dear Porter Lansing:

    Here is a picture of my printouts for the last year and a half worth of shows:

    https://plainstribune.com/?service=events.Image&name=printouts.png

    You may only look at them if you click the link, though, so if you don’t click the link I suppose you can stay in your mind-state of denial.

    In your honor, I’ve also posted this picture to the front page of PlainsTribune.com (the right column, which doesn’t get updated often, so this is a real honor).

    If you do have the courage to click the links, you’ll see me in my new groovy blue blocking glasses for night driving and for long sessions in front of my monitor researching issues and topics, which is probably why, despite all odds, I’ve been right about quite a bit of things!

    Sincerely,

    Not a cult leader

  24. John Dale 2021-07-10 21:17

    If you would like to know what’s in my printouts, listen to the show (the center column).

    I’m happy to entertain feedback, do interviews, and publish your own thoughts should you have any.

    Sincerely,

    John

  25. Richard Schriever 2021-07-10 21:19

    John Dale – Man – being a NATURAL being (not a spirit) can only create things that are NATURAL – from nature – it is his nature. So – Vaccines are a NATURAL creation of man and therefor a form of NATURAL IMMUNITY. Get a real clue about what NATURE is. Hint – it is not what some marketing/branding messaging propaganda tells you it is. Don’t be a tool.

  26. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 21:31

    Gosh, why do you copy me, John Dale no original thoughts in your Q boy brain. Too stoned on a Saturday night?

  27. Porter Lansing 2021-07-10 22:09

    John Dale – I don’t want to know what you print out and I don’t want to be a demographic statistic used by you to promote yourself.

    I want you to give links, with validity, showing where you get your facts.

    Oh, that’s right. You only assert opinions.

    Never mind. Enjoy yourself pretending to be important.

  28. Mark Anderson 2021-07-10 22:24

    Let’s see 99.2% of covid cases last month in the US of A were among the non vaccinated. Cases rising in Missouri, Arkansas, because of their low rates of vaccination. Florida is going up too. Its pretty obvious that your arguments that have been won are delusional John Dale.

  29. Mark Anderson 2021-07-11 08:51

    Porter, I’m sure they come mostly from Alex Jones, nuff said.

  30. Neal 2021-07-11 09:43

    The infection fatality rate for smallpox is 30%.

    The IFR for covid is like .00002.

    So … maybe not the best analogy.

  31. Mark Anderson 2021-07-11 12:38

    Well Neal, I believe my father had the last case of smallpox in South Dakota. It was eradicated worldwide so thats why the rates you mentioned aren’t the best analogy. With so many anti vaxxers around covid will always be around.

  32. Neal 2021-07-11 13:16

    Covid is always going to be around no matter what, just like the flu, with a similar infection fatality rate.

  33. Richard Schriever 2021-07-11 13:31

    Neal – that rate reflects the IFR ONLY if it includes people under 19 – who are much less likely to even get infected. For the population more likely to be infected – 20 – 49, the rate is 10 times greater at .0002. For those 50 – 69, it’s .005 and for those 70+ it’s .06. (CDCs numbers – those over 80 are not represented).

  34. Neal 2021-07-11 13:49

    Those pesky kids ruining your fear narrative.

  35. John Dale 2021-07-11 14:09

    Porter Lansing – I am but a vessel.

    I source information from literally hundreds of sources of all political and cultural dispositions.

    I think it’s a red herring to require that, for every assertion, evidence be provided in real-time when it has been proven to me over and over that people like you don’t follow up on the sources, anyway. Heck, you even tell people not to go to my website after telling them some cockamamy lie about my site (in fact, from a privacy, security, malware perspective, my site is not offensive at all, literally no third party tracking or cookies, it all comes from my server, not google and others).

    So my perspective is, when I meet someone who will read and follow-up, I have the receipts and I will take the time (Tara Volesky and Lora Hubbel are two great people who keep open minds and don’t seem to have an agenda). I often site the source, like the recent cell phone study I covered wherein if you talk on the phone for 17 minutes per day for 10 years your chance of a brain tumor is 60% higher (Cal Berkley, Berkley independent student newspaper, more information at you know where).

    Furthermore, for anyone wanting to take essentially the same journey that I did to arrive at the same conclusions (or not) that I have, it’s all right there at PlainsTribune.com – so, when you say that I should cite my source, what you mean is, “John, go do some meaningless work to distract you.”

    Go to the bottom of the site (it’ll take awhile, there is a LOT of information there, which should be mostly cited, if not let me know what’s missing and I’ll fill it in “there”).

    Again, it’s all there at Plains Tribune. So, when you say “cite your source” but “don’t visit Plains Tribune”, you prove that you’re vetting yourself as kind of a punk; an information hack.

    Sincerely,

    John

  36. Mark Anderson 2021-07-11 14:32

    Gosh John, over 620,000 dead from covid in the US. You can look up the source. Neal, thats just a fact. Well over 350 people a day are dying from it and now with the vaccine it could be down to almost nothing. Its going to go up a bit too, in the next couple of weeks, its inevitable. Have a very nice day and keep spreading your news. Speaking of an open mind while you troll for reinforcing points of view is funny, but so lame. Just go to worldometers to check the cases. The CDC isn’t as good but still its factual. Why don’t you check out those sources?

  37. Mark Anderson 2021-07-11 14:40

    Oh John, the founding fathers vaccines killed so many more.

  38. Mark Anderson 2021-07-11 14:47

    Oh, and Neal, how did they get rid of Smallpox anyway?

  39. Mark Anderson 2021-07-11 15:02

    By the way, this flu thing keeps popping up. I believe all you So Daks trust the Mayo Clinic. www,mayoclinic.org. just check out Coronovirus vs. Flu: Similarities and differences. It ‘s enlightening.

  40. Neal 2021-07-11 15:32

    “[O]ver 620,000 dead from covid in the US. You can look up the source. Neal, thats just a fact.”

    500k/year die because of tobacco, almost all of them preventable through similarly draconian measures that we’ve used to combat covid. Why don’t you care about them, Mark?

  41. mike from iowa 2021-07-11 16:15

    WORLD / COUNTRIES / UNITED STATES
    Last updated: July 11, 2021, 20:57 GMT
    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    34,731,593
    Deaths:
    622,845
    Recovered:
    29,242,181
    Daily Cases Graph – Daily Deaths Graph
    Projections
    CLOSED CASES
    29,865,026
    Cases which had an outcome:
    29,242,181 (98%)
    Recovered / Discharged

    622,845 (2%)
    Deaths

  42. Mark Anderson 2021-07-11 16:33

    Neal, why don’t I care about people who smoke. Well they deserve it, especially those dope smokers from Spearfish. By the way 22,000 people did die of the flu compared to 622,000 from covid. How did that happen since you said their so similar? Check on New Zealand Neal, 26 dead they shut down totally and followed the science, opened up earlier, just a huge success. Leadership is really something isn’t it?

  43. Donald Pay 2021-07-11 16:36

    My daughter and I discussed some of this early on in the pandemic. I suggested to my kid that the US would get the virus under control faster than China. She said, “No way.”

    My argument was that the US has a “can do” attitude and a scientific/medical infrastructure that is vastly superior to China. I said that anything the US sets its mind to do, it can do. My daughter took China’s side. She said the issue was cultural, not scientific or based on individual “can do” effort. She said the Chinese population looks at disease more in terms of the community, not the individual. And, especially early on, the fact that older people were being killed by the disease almost exclusively meant that China’s reverence for the elderly would play a bigger role than in the US, where the elderly are warehoused and ignored. So, when it came to closures, distancing, masks, using technology to beat the spread, and vaccinations the Chinese people thought more in terms of community interest than in individual interest. Their social cohesion was much stronger than ours. And they came out beating Covid back a year before we did, even before vaccinations. They key to beating the disease was social cohesion.

    As a result of social cohesion, China’s economy came back much faster than did Western economies. My daughter, who lives in Beijing, was going about her business by last summer, with occasional short lockdowns, while the US was beginning a plummet into the worst pandemic response in the world.

    There’s something to be learned from this. Western society thinks in terms of disease being an individual problem. Risks are assessed on an individual basis, and so some individuals think they have an immune system that can beat Covid and keep them from dying. If they assess risks at all, they think solely in individual terms. They never think about the poor folks they pass their disease onto. The risks for them may be much greater. Because are risk calculation doesn’t include being a vector as well as a patient we miss the most significant part of risk, the risk to the community.

  44. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2021-07-11 16:43

    Hmm… for all the flak launched by Neal and John, I’m not hearing any refutation of the main point, that General Washington’s sensible and scientific response to an epidemic saved his soldiers and made the American Revolution possible. If Washington’s army had been filled with a bunch of selfish deniers and BS artists like the folks cheering for resistance to vaccines today, we’d be a province of Canada.

  45. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2021-07-11 16:48

    John Dale, it’s hard to have an informative conversation when you keep interrupting with complete malarkey.

    Smallpox variolation was not gene therapy. Neither are the mRNA coronavirus vaccines:

    Gene therapies involve making deliberate changes to a patient’s DNA in order to cure or alleviate a genetic condition. This can be by adding a functional copy of a gene, disabling a gene that makes a faulty product or changing gene activation.

    The mRNA from the vaccines does not enter the cell nucleus or interact with the DNA at all, so it does not constitute gene therapy.

    Gene therapies can have long-lasting effects because they permanently change the cell’s DNA, with these changes being inherited by any daughter cells that result if the cell divides. In contrast, mRNAs are always transitory and are not inherited by daughter cells, making them ideal for use in vaccines [UK NHS: Genomics Educaton Programme, “Why mRNA Vaccines Aren’t Gene Therapies,” 2021.06.11].

  46. Richard Schriever 2021-07-11 17:26

    Neal – Tobacco use is voluntary. contracting the SARS- COV2 virus is not. Comprende?

  47. Mark Anderson 2021-07-11 17:29

    Donald your point about the individual is well taken, even the Democrats bought into it. Its a long way from “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” If any nation did develop a killer disease, they’d have us cold.

  48. cibvet 2021-07-11 17:43

    Facts have zero impact on deniers whose main objective is to crave attention. That said, I do find the fact based science provided for the deniers educational for myself. Albeit, like maggots on a gut pile, they are hard to stomach, but do provide a useful service.

  49. ds 2021-07-11 18:27

    Well, Republican Arkansas Governor Hutchinson is trying to prevent the fine citizens in his state from contacting to the Covid-19 virus. He points out that “misinformation” like ‘infertility’ and ‘mind control’ lies are preventing people from realizing that the vaccine gives near 100% protection from even the latest deadly Delta variant. Please DO NOT listen to Kristi Noem or the other posts from the mask and vaccine deniers on this and other blogs! Do what any reliable South Dakota physician would recommend: Get your two shot doses and protect yourself and family.And until the shots are available for pre-teens, protect them the best you can!
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/gov-hutchinson-misinformation-leading-to-lower-vaccination-rate-in-arkansas/vi-AALYdzv?ocid=U508DHP

  50. Neal 2021-07-12 00:08

    “Neal – Tobacco use is voluntary. contracting the SARS- COV2 virus is not. Comprende?”

    You can eliminate almost all the risk of being exposed to covid. Just stay home, avoid people, etc. With very few exceptions, covid exposure is voluntary too, based on lifestyle choices.

    (The elderly in nursing homes is an exception, but steps can be taken to mitigate almost all the risk there too.)

    You know what else is voluntary? Many of the additional risk factors and comorbidities that lead to hospitalizations and deaths — obesity being far and way the largest factor. (But by all means, shut down the gyms, that makes a lot of sense.)

    It’s not government’s job to ensure a risk-free world for you to live in, and I’ve sacrificed enough over the last 18 months. My kids have sacrificed much, much more. You have your vaccine and your mask(s), and you can stay home forever and pick your groceries up in the parking lot. I don’t need to change my lifestyle to suit your paranoia.

  51. Neal 2021-07-12 00:16

    “Facts have zero impact on deniers whose main objective is to crave attention. That said, I do find the fact based science provided for the deniers educational for myself.”

    Since you like facts so much, your beloved CDC itself says that the chances of dying of Covid are .00002%. That’s a fact.

    (Remember when the “scientists” and “medical experts” were hollering about a 3% fatality rate, or 8%, or 10%? I do. That’s another fact.)

    This “threat” does not justify a “shut the world down for years” response. It never did, even at the start. It absolutely doesn’t now.

  52. cibvet 2021-07-12 00:20

    Neal–please list all the supposed sacrifices you and yours have made in the last 18 months.

  53. jerry 2021-07-12 02:51

    John Dale has been vaccinated just like his boy Tucker Carlson. He just doesn’t want you to be.

  54. Neal 2021-07-12 08:17

    “Neal–please list all the supposed sacrifices you and yours have made in the last 18 months.”

    Don’t be obtuse. Businesses and churches were closed. My children were deprived of their education, and worse, their childhood for way too long. None of these things are trivial.

  55. Neal 2021-07-12 08:22

    “Hmm… for all the flak launched by Neal and John, I’m not hearing any refutation of the main point…”

    As I said, your analogy is spurious and silly. That’s all the refutation it warrants.

    But I know this — George Washington wouldn’t have shut down the revolutionary war (or anything else for that matter) because of covid. You can take that to the bank.

  56. bearcreekbat 2021-07-12 09:34

    Neal describes “sacrifices” in an informative manner.

    Businesses and churches were closed. My children were deprived of their education, and worse, their childhood for way too long. None of these things are trivial.

    Apparently Neal wanted to have businesses and churches open and available to him and his family, but the folks owning or operating these facilities didn’t cooperate with Neal, so he didn’t get what he wanted. Likewise, schools did not act as he desired, hence his children didn’t get what he decided they needed and wanted.

    “Sacrifice,” however, is generally defined as many things, including “an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.” In Neal’s examples he and his children voluntarily gave up nothing. Rather they simply couldn’t have everything they wanted because of other people’s decisions rather than their own choice to give something up to help others.

    Says a lot about the viewpoint shared by so many folks today. “Poor me,” forget about everybody else.

  57. Donald Pay 2021-07-12 09:46

    Neal talks about Covid as if there was a lot of “sacrifice” required by him. Really?

    I find Neal’s idea of “sacrifice” interesting. What I call a “sacrifice” is the people who died because other people didn’t really “sacrifice” much at all for no longer than two months. These dead, numbering up to 300,00, were sacrificed for political or selfish reasons of others, particularly the former President. What Neal considers “sacrifice” I consider being a human being in a society of caring human beings.

    Neal forgets that the death rate he purports to pooh-pooh has been kept relatively low due to the collective actions of society. Those include, especially, that the initial response of lockdowns, etc., provided needed time for health care professionals to figure out how to treat Covid so that health outcomes could improve. And those actions limited the spread of the disease. I can’t figure out what Neal’s point is, except that, apparently, these folks who died should have been sacrificed so Neal didn’t have to “sacrifice.”

  58. mike from iowa 2021-07-12 09:48

    Sacrifice- it is better to give than to receive, therefore, you give, I’ll receive. John Q Magat.

  59. mike from iowa 2021-07-12 09:53

    Soldiers in the Continental Army were the essential workers of their era.

  60. Neal 2021-07-12 12:37

    “In Neal’s examples he and his children voluntarily gave up nothing. Rather they simply couldn’t have everything they wanted because of other people’s decisions…”

    So sacrifice has to be voluntary? Tell that to the American soldiers who were drafted into wars and died for their country.

    And by “other people’s decisions” you mean government, right? That’s who closed my business. That’s who deprived my children of a year of education, a year of their childhood. If you don’t see sacrifice there, you’re being deliberately obnoxious.

  61. bearcreekbat 2021-07-12 13:55

    Hey Neal, I didn’t write the dictionary nor create a definition of “sacrifice.” The problem with too many arguments like yours is that they misuse our long standing definitions of words.

    Whether you think pure selfishness is good or bad, it simply does not meet the accepted definition of “sacrifice.”

    Soldiers that were drafted did not sacrifice themselves, they were forced by law into the circumstances that took their lives. Perhaps the nation decided to sacrifice” these individuals for some supposed greater good, but conscripted individuals had at best a Hobson’s choice in the matter.

    And no, I don’t mean “the government” when referring to “other people’s decisions.” Our particular “government” is the institution established by the US Constitution and the laws are enacted by “actual people” that voters elect to public office. Individuals that work in government agencies also are “actual people,” that are each distinct individuals with varying skills, competence, political views, religions, etc. It is these “actual people” that make decisions, not some personified boogeyman that too many people label as “the government.”

    So no, I don’t mean “the government” when referring to “other people’s decisions.” Moreover, here in South Dakota the decision whether to close the businesses and churches that you wanted to stay open were not even made by the anyone invloved in government, rather these decisions to close were made the private owners and operators themselves, also “actual people.”

  62. Neal 2021-07-12 15:08

    Your facts are off, BCB. Some businesses in some towns in SD were forcibly closed by government order. And even greater damage was done to those businesses by way of the paranoid hysteria that drove policy making about the virus.

  63. Neal 2021-07-12 15:12

    For the record, I find the position of most here to be as or more selfish than mine. I’m not trying to tell anyone how to live. You are — to serve your own desires.

  64. Porter Lansing 2021-07-12 16:21

    Neal says, “For the record, I find the position of most here to be as or more selfish than mine. I’m not trying to tell anyone how to live. You are — to serve your own desires.”

    Correct, Nealski. You’re not telling us “how to live”. You’re begging for us to recognize you as a victim.

    But, why should we bother? You are exactly who you want to be, in your own reality. Not ours …

  65. bearcreekbat 2021-07-12 20:11

    Neal is correct that some local restaurants and bars were ordered closed by local officials (actual people) in some local towns in South Dakota in an effort to curb the spread of Covid 19 and protect residents.

    https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/business-journal/2020/08/30/south-dakota-restaurants-battle-survival-amid-pandemic/5658713002/

    I stand corrected as to restaurants and bars, yet I am unaware of any churches, grocery stores, or other businesses being ordered by local officials to shut down.

  66. mike from iowa 2021-07-13 08:36

    San Francisco County and South Dakota have roughly the same population; SF has had 559 total Covid deaths, SD 2039.

  67. M 2021-07-29 15:30

    Our Founding fathers were men of science and reason. Anti vaxers are neither.

    Now my Irish ancestors would ostracize those who refuse to help protect themselves because it would endanger the tribe. You know survival of the fittest.

    Americans who keep the virus mutating will become a burden with continued illnesses. Insurance companies will end up mandating the vaccine because they are loosing money. If they can fix prescription drug prices and pick and choose which meds to cover (birth control) they can certainly require shots.

    I bet some of the unvaxed want teachers to be vaccinated so they can get their kids off to school.

  68. M 2021-07-29 15:33

    Neal, you must have a wife that does all the shopping and goes out for all the chores. What do you mean by just stay home? That’s absurd. Since March of 2020, do you know how many days some of us have given up for to stay away from idiots. Whys is the responsibility on us?

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