If You Think Ebola Is Dangerous…
by Reverend Reynard N. Blake, Jr
Ebola IS dangerous
But is it a pandemic?
Not yet—if ever
Ebola is NOT everywhere
Corporate news implies Ebola is under every nook and cranny
The story boosts ratings and sales
Anything that titillates, disgusts, or scares
Make you moan or go, “awwwwwww”
Anything that discourages people to think
Corporate news is there
Fear-mongering
Corporate media transmits Ebola
Political punditry maims analysis and problem-solving
Finger-pointing is a trend
Instead of promoting health
Sensationalism turns people into victims
Emergency rooms overflow
Reaction to those that really need help--slow
Here’s what is dangerous: ignorance
Ignorance is parents that don’t get their kids vaccinated
Reintroducing diseases that have virtually eliminated
Some parents want “freedom” in raising their kids
That doesn’t give them the freedom to spread disease
Other kids are not Petri dishes
If diseases aren’t checked
Schools become a ground zero
Much worse than 9eleven
Ebola will be the least of our worries
The kids don’t completely understand
Disease and germ-spreading
Cleanliness must be taught
Good hygiene--expected
Mommy and daddy have to be good role models
They have to take care of themselves
But, if they lack quality health care
Accessible healthcare
Affordable healthcare
The ACA is weak enough
Society is on the verge of disaster
Some will moan, “We’re in the last days!”
Calm down!
Maybe, if we’re committed to hand washing
Blocking sneezes
Spreading disease—lessened
Remember, The Plague?
We survived it, though devastation was widespread
It wasn’t “The End”
Seems like we’ve been waiting for “The End”
The “here,” “now” and “the future” seem lessened
Caring for each other—more important
For the world, that’s a challenge
Blocking boarders to prevent spreading disease
It doesn’t matter
Disease will spread where disease will spread
Remember “SARS” and “Swine Flu?”
It got here, anyway
Here are some real boogeymen
Ones that could make Ebola seem like a common cold:
Biological weapons
Chemical weapons
Deadly beyond measure
Made, then stored
What if something stored is mishandled?
What about terrorists—especially homegrown?
What about the people that want to make a name for themselves
Or, the people with a “God Complex”
If you believe The Last Poets
“The White Man’s Got A God Complex”
The God Complex lives in America
Chemical weapon-producing countries
Chemical-weapon stockpilers
Laws, rules, agreements, memorandums of understanding
All countries don’t adhere or abide
It means nothing
If one country doesn’t go with the program
There is no program
It only takes one chemical or biological agent to get out
Global annihilation
Armageddon, without guns
America
Always engaged in chemical warfare
“Big Pharm”
Who needs the dope man on the street?
Big Pharm’s got all you need
Don’t need coke
Don’t need weed
Big Pharm’s protected, man
Ebola doesn’t have anything on “Big Oil”
It can pollute anywhere and everywhere
Ebola doesn’t make ducks slimy
Ebola doesn’t destroy the environment
Breathing around industrial areas
More dangerous than breathing around someone with Ebola
We’re not thinking, brothers and sisters!
As Forrest Gump would say,
“Stupid is, as stupid does!”
Checking temperatures at an airport
More sideshow than effective tactic
White people worry about disease to America
Indigenous peoples should have considered the same
Shot the white man where he stood
The white man brought smallpox-infected blankets
Once natives continued their exposure to the white man
They absorbed more alcohol
Alcohol became an addiction
Natives still dealing with it
The reservation—the white man’s mini quarantine
The white man introduced a pathogen to those foreign to him—
A waxen god with a poofy hair-do
A pasty Providence
A flaxen-haired “savior”
Poisonous
More opiate than healer
More placebo than peaceful
Injected into the people in tremendous doses
Infected the people
And, Ebola is the major health threat?
Come on, now!
And yet, America worries incessantly
Soon Ebola will be found in the trees
In the birds and the bees
Granted, we should be aware of Ebola
However, Ebola shouldn’t make us crazy
There are so many other pathogens
Ignorance is the first we should consider
Author's Bio: Reverend Reynard N. Blake, Jr., M. S. is an ordained Baptist minister living in East Lansing, Michigan with his wife Karen Kelly-Blake, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University (MSU). He earned his Master of Science degree in Community Development-Urban Studies from MSU and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the College of Charleston (SC). He has co-authored several articles on faith-based community development and is also a poet, political analyst, and social critic. His work has appeared on Black Commentator, Michigan Family Review, Op-ED.com, the Online Journal of Urban Youth Culture and Black Agenda Report. He is putting on the final touches on a book of political parody and poetry; no publisher yet. He would appreciate any input on where and how he can get it published. He can be reached at reynardblakejr@yahoo.com.
Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, joins Black Agenda Report to discuss the latest outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease and explains what it tells us about conditions in that…
Leah Goodridge, a New York City-based attorney, housing advocate, and writer, is a member of the City Planning Commission. She joins Black Agenda Report from New York to discuss deed theft and…
Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report speaks with Ahmed Kaballo, founder of Nairobi-based Sovereign Media, about the Africa Forward summit with France, the Pan-Africanism Summit Against…
Venezuela’s betrayal of Alex Saab in handing him over to the U.S. leaves little room for debate. The Bolivarian revolution has been seriously undermined and can only be revived by the Venezuelan…
Malcolm X understood that “oppressed peoples must commit themselves to radical political struggle in order to advance a dignified approach to human rights.” What’s needed is a bottom-up mass movement…
