A poem about 2021 (published in the early 1900s)
And then a few comments about Chicago's new vaccine passport regime
Yesterday we got The Harp and Laurel Wreath in the mail, and I have enjoyed poking through it, especially all the poems for young children at the beginning of the book. But I also came across the poem “Strictly Germ-Proof” by Arthur Guiterman. It was originally published in… well actually, I’ve found claims of both 1906 and 1919 online, but more likely the earlier date is original publication. But I thought… now that is a poem about life in 2021 for many people right there. The poem is out of copyright now so I can just give it to you, so here you go.
“Strictly Germ-Proof” by Arthur Guiterman
The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gamboled up;
They looked upon the Creature with a loathing undisguised;—
It wasn't Disinfected and it wasn't Sterilized.They said it was a Microbe and a Hotbed of Disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as Banished Hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And elected it a member of the Fumigated Band.There's not a Micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a Hygienic Cup-
The Bunny and the Baby and the Prophylactic Pup.
Poetry does move the emotions in a way argument does not, and I did enjoy that.
Chicago’s new vaccine passport regime
And then, you might say on a related note!, I have to briefly comment on this for you:
A few comments:
We should not forget that when vaccine passports were first discussed, they were widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory. In fact here in Michigan, there was a GOP effort many months ago to ban vaccine passports (which I believe failed), and my own Democratic, state senator mocked the GOP for trying to make law based on a conspiracy theory. Now if a bill to create vaccine passports had been proposed the very next day, my same Democratic state senator would have probably voted in favor of it. I was skeptical of government before 2020, obviously, but more than ever I don’t know how you can believe anything these people say about anything. They just lie, and lie, and lie, and lie.
“The mayor will announce”… perma-emergency-rule by executives has to end. This is dictatorship, this is not the American system. Two years later, still getting “surprise! Brand new major rules tomorrow with no public input and no discussion” is inexcusable. “But David, the Chicago city council would have affirmed the rules anyway.” Maybe (and maybe not), but there would have been a chance for public input, there would have been discussion. There would have been, you know, representative government.
“And a driver’s license”… I’m sorry, I was told for literally decades by Democrats that photo ID requirements were a racist imposition. Is any journalist going to ask about that comparison? Again I must say that it is difficult for me to believe anything these people say about anything anymore. You spend decades opposing X ostensibly on principle, then overnight become a proponent of X with zero acknowledgement of or interaction with the fact that a change has occurred. I don’t know how people can live their mental lives like that (unless they understand that it was always just a scam they were running anyway).
Will Chicagoans favor these new rules? You can read some of the things people are saying but certainly some will. But not, for many of them, because they felt unsafe before (after 1.5 years of mingling just fine with unvaccinated people). No, because such systems grant them status and that feels good. It’s Priority Pass but for the whole city and they are members. Yes, keep the lower classes and the unclean away from them, please. It doesn’t have to make sense from a health perspective because it isn’t about health. It makes them feel elite and superior.
There was a cultural shift circa 1900 about hygiene. It probably ties in with Prohibition, chemical warfare in World War I, the growth of the European and U.S. chemical industries in the late 1800s, new electrical and lighting technologies.. A book there to be written, if it has not been, about all of that as it relates to the Spanish flu and WWI.
And of course now there's the cultural shift stemming from the Internet and cell phones, leading into this coronavirus mania.