Today's cynical thoughts on what ties us all together

There's a lot of punditry devoted to how America is becoming a more and more Sectarian society, with people clinging to their tribes and thinking of other tribes as "the enemy." Any tribe that feels threatened with changing status, like going from the majority to the minority (as non-Hispanic whites are projected to experience by mid-century), can create chaos and even violence in attempting to fend off that status change.

The current battle between political parties over VACCINES is an instance of this divide. I had to look it up, but the modern polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk, completed trials and become widely available in the mid-1950s. I was vaccinated while in elementary school and can't recall much agonizing over getting a shot -- well, no kid really looks forward to getting a shot, but everyone got the shot. Anyway, the idea that politics had anything to do with a vaccine that could alleviate suffering for so many was not part of the conversation.

By 1994, about 40 years later, polio had been eliminated in the Western Hemisphere. Think about that! A disease that had persisted for thousands of years was defeated by science and widespread vaccine use. But humans have poor group memory, I guess, because that triumph over disease never comes up any more. Polio is so "last century."

The arguing will go on, because that is what Americans do with whatever spare time they have, but I suspect that vaccinations will fitfully proceed, that those proudly skeptical and reluctant citizens will eventually shrug and quietly get vaccinated, and that the current pandemic will slowly recede from that leaky societal memory.

It won't take all that long for Covid to join polio as another historical footnote.

And here's the somewhat cynical hope: I see in the news that rental car rates have tripled in the past couple months. Evidently, rental car companies sold much of their cars during the pandemic and will take some time to recover. And air travel costs are projected to go higher than they were pre-pandemic, perhaps by this summer. Free at last!

I find comfort in what connects people, and one of of those connections is that we all experience the effects of large companies pushing prices higher when they can get away with it. "Those other people," meaning shadowy business owners, understand profits and pay scant attention to political debates.

I know. I know. Some corporations have made statements about voting rights and police restructuring and social justice... and so much more. But aren't we all united in knowing that, ultimately, those corporations will return to spreadsheets and investments and raw profits, often at our expense?

There are red states and blue states, though such adjectives are never very accurate or helpful. What binds us is knowing that we all live in "green" states, and I don't mean environmentally conscious.

The green is money and what most of us share is the reality that a very small percentage of our fellow citizens possesses most of it.

But, by all means, let's keep wrangling about the elimination of a few Dr. Seuss books.

Bread and circuses, my friend. As it has always been.