[zendog3]

When my wife and I left The Villages for Leesburg, I had a vague feeling of both dread and hope. We were both near 80 with “pre-existing conditions.” If Covid 19 got us, the odds are that one or both of us would die. In my car, I sensed relative security was only 20 minutes away.

The mall we went to is a seedy place. The Sears store where the shots were to be given would have been bustling 20 years ago. Now, with faded paint and pealing signs, the image was of an America in decline. The older adults, like us, making their way to the store, were gray and bald. Some walking. Some in wheelchairs or walkers.

Inside, the store bustled once again. Young men and women, firefighters, off-duty police, and nurses moved us from station, taking information, giving us our shots, and watching for reactions. These people were cheerful, and they exuded pride in their role in saving lives.

As we moved along, my gratitude for all the people that made this moment possible grew. The public health people at the CDC, the bureaucrats who hustled the science through, the scientists who broke records producing the vaccine in record time, and these people, going beyond to vaccinate so many strangers.

On the way home, my gratitude continued to grow. It extended to the businesses who enforce covid rules and to you. People who ignored the doubters. People who stayed inside and wore masks. You were protecting yourself. But you also recognized a responsibility to others.

All of us Americans working in concert saved my life. Thank you.

I have often wondered how during WWII, all Americans worked together to defeat a formidable enemy. I wondered if we still had that American spirit. I should have known. That spirit was working under my feet. I just failed to see it.

America is at war, and millions of Americans working as one are fighting and winning. This may sound patriotic. Maybe it is. A patriot is not a person who waves a flag. A patriot is a person who works together with his fellow man, acting as a single force for the good of all Americans. Patriots ignore the deniers and doubters.

I used to worry that we as a nation were too fractured to meet the challenges of a warming earth, deforestation, foreign enemies. I now feel confident that, with leadership that brings us together, rather than fracturing us along lines of race, religion, and ethnology, we can do anything that must be done.