<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Browsing the books on sale at the local St. Vinnie\u2019s, I came upon an interesting title.\u00a0 I never added it to my retirement book reading list because I couldn\u2019t finish it.\u00a0 It was a collection of stories about the ways people remove themselves from the human race and are thus prevented from contributing their DNA to the gene pool.\u00a0 The stories about these so-called \u2018Darwin Award Winners\u2019 are meant to be funny (I think), but after paging through a few sections, I had to put it down.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t see much humor in people dying either by accident (or on purpose if they knew the level of risk involved) while performing dangerous stunts.\u00a0 Even though the segments are filtered for TV consumption, I can\u2019t find myself enjoying a show like <\/span>Jackass<\/span><\/i> where the \u2018stars\u2019 challenge each other to try painful tricks.\u00a0 One version of <\/span>Americas Got Talent<\/span><\/i> has recently appeared with <\/span>Extreme<\/span><\/i> added to the title.\u00a0 I will assume (because I won\u2019t watch it) this involves people looking for their fifteen minutes of fame by performing dangerous stunts for the TV viewers at home.\u00a0 Had I lived in Roman times, I would not have been one to grab a seat at the Coliseum to watch the gladiators duke it out, either.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So, why am I talking about the Darwin Awards if I do not want to share some of the gruesome details of how one \u2018wins\u2019 a coveted DA?\u00a0 My aim here is to take a peek at where humans are headed.\u00a0 Since Darwin\u2019s Theories have been well accepted in the decades since the fabled Scopes Monkey Trial (in most quarters), I would like to examine what evolution may have in store for\u00a0 <\/span>Homo Sapiens<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Let us start with something one might not view as being all that dangerous to humans:\u00a0 the cell phone.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Back before schools began relaxing regulations about students having cell phones on their person during the school day, I would occasionally confiscate one in my class.\u00a0 The offending item would be turned over to the office and the student would be able to reclaim it after school.\u00a0 I can only remember confiscating a phone from the same student twice, and the second time, I locked it up and told them they could have it back in a week.\u00a0 When I returned the phone, they laughed and said, \u201cOh, my mother already bought me a new one.\u201d\u00a0 So much for parental support in my mission to emphasize paying attention to school work and not social media.\u00a0 The cell phone has become as commonplace in the hallways and classrooms as books it seems.\u00a0 In my junior high days, everyone had a comb in their back pocket.\u00a0 Today, it has been replaced by a cell phone.\u00a0 Back then, we were told \u2018males with long hair is a sign of the apocalypse\u2019 (or some such dire consequence) but it never came to pass.\u00a0 But phones are not combs, are they?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Inevitably, my students would want to discuss why it was \u2018such a big deal\u2019 if they had a phone in the classroom.\u00a0 I would rattle off my list of reasons and remind them there will be a lot of things they will not be allowed to do in life whenever and wherever they want to do them.\u00a0 In my mind, the \u2018no phones in the classroom\u2019 policy had a certain amount of \u2018real life\u2019 educational value to it.\u00a0 Come to think of it, I also used the same line of reasoning to explain why I did not allow students to chew gum in my class, but I digress.\u00a0 With a semi-serious set of answers in mind, I would ask, \u201cWhat do you think will happen to humans if they are glued to their phones every day for an entire lifetime?\u201d\u00a0 If the question confused them, I would explain what I thought might happen:\u00a0 \u201cHave you ever seen those stubby little front arms on a T-Rex?\u00a0 Don\u2019t they look kind of useless?\u00a0 I think that people using their thumbs to constantly text will eventually cause human arms to shrink and thumbs to grow as a result of overusing two digits and underusing the other eight.\u00a0 Does your neck ever hurt from constantly looking down at your phone?\u00a0 I think human necks and spines will start curving forward and our normal shape will begin to resemble a question mark.\u00a0 This will also probably make humans shorter over time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOh, that isn\u2019t going to happen!\u201d would be the general reply.\u00a0 \u201cOkay,\u201d I would continue, \u201cHow about human\u2019s ability to communicate?\u00a0 When you walk down the hall at lunch time, do you talk to others or stare at your phone?\u00a0 Will people become \u2018non-verbal\u2019 if they only ever \u2018talk\u2019 to each other by texting or email?\u00a0 Don\u2019t even get me started on grammar, spelling, and punctuation!\u201d\u00a0 Someone would point out, \u201cOh, we talk all the time,\u201d yet I still noticed a trend over the past couple of decades.\u00a0 The halls before school, between classes, and even during the lunch period used to be alive with chatter.\u00a0 The pattern I observed in the last few years of my career was different – students were either sitting with their backs to the wall or slowly walking the halls with their eyes downcast and glued to a screen.\u00a0 After we started our <\/span>Strive 4 a Safer Drive – Don\u2019t be Distracted<\/span><\/i> safe driving campaign seven years ago, I began telling those walking and texting, \u201cYou know, walking while texting is just as dangerous as driving while texting.\u201d\u00a0 A bit of a stretch, but it is a line I used more times than I can remember.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Taking a required Cultural Geography class back in my undergrad days, there was one lecture delivered by Professor Bernard Peters I still remember clearly more than fifty years later.\u00a0 Peters\u2019 topic that day dealt with population growth and he referenced a work by Thomas Robert Malthus from 1798 (<\/span>An Essay on the Principle of Population<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 Malthus made some dire predictions about the Earth\u2019s ability to sustain an ever growing population in balance with the stresses it would cause on food supplies.\u00a0 It seems we have, thus far, escaped what became known as the \u2018Malthusian catastrophe\u2019 in which the population is kept at or reduced to sustainable levels because of food shortages.\u00a0 I do not think we have escaped this scenario entirely as images of starving children from around the world (and not just from impoverished third-world countries) flash across our media outlets daily to encourage us to give generously to combat this global problem.\u00a0 The part of the lecture that caught my attention was Peters\u2019 reference to what Maltus called \u2018Positive or Natural population controls\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWar,\u201d Peters reasoned, \u201cwould be considered a \u2018positive population control\u2019 by Malthus.\u201d\u00a0 The eighteen-year old me thought, \u201cHow can war be considered a positive anything?\u201d but he did not mean \u2018positive\u2019 as in \u2018good\u2019.\u00a0 Peters explained trends that help restore the balance in the Malthus equation are \u2018positive\u2019 if the end result is less people to feed and \u2018negative\u2019 if the result is more people to feed.\u00a0 When the COVID pandemic deaths reached hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone (and now, over a million), I thought about Peters\u2019 Malthus lecture.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How would a Malthus catastrophe be considered a \u2018Darwin take the wheel\u2019 moment?\u00a0 Whenever I am confronted with a \u2018COVID is just a hoax\u2019 opinion, I counter with something along the lines of, \u201cSo, where exactly did those 1,000,000 (plus) people go?\u00a0 If COVID didn\u2019t kill them, were they taken away by aliens?\u201d\u00a0 If the simple fact that hundreds of thousands of people died isn\u2019t reason enough to take every precaution possible (yes, I am talking about social distancing when appropriate and getting vaccinated), then you are flirting with removing your DNA from the human population.\u00a0 I made the choice to be vaccinated based on research done on COVID variants done since the SARS epidemic of 2002-2004 (not just this variant).\u00a0 It is worrisome that some celebrities who have \u2018done their own research\u2019 speak like they have some special inside knowledge to share.\u00a0 Sadly, too many people will \u2018follow the (Facebook, Tweets, podcasts, etc) ramblings of a celebrity\u2019 rather than take the advice of those who have actually studied the problem.\u00a0 Doing research in a lab is not the same as research done on your phone, folks!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rocker Ted Nugent has been quite outspoken on many subjects over the years.\u00a0 Sharing what he said was \u201ctruth, logic, and common sense with people who care,\u201d Ted called COVID-19 a \u2018weaponized virus\u2019 after he and his wife had both contracted coronavirus early in 2021.\u00a0 \u201cI did what the government told me not to do,\u201d said the Nuge, \u201cBecause what the government tells you to do is always the wrong thing.\u00a0 I took hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, steroids, and zinc and continued with my healthy lifestyle, being clean and sober and eating venison, and my wife and I recovered in just a few days.\u201d\u00a0 I won\u2019t get into Ted\u2019s political leanings, but this statement made me wonder if he considers himself lucky to have contracted what sounds like a less severe case.\u00a0 Only time will tell if he is subject to any of the \u2018long COVID\u2019 effects.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As for taking the coronavirus vaccine, Nugent called it an \u201cexperimental shot.\u00a0 If you try to give it to me, I\u2019ll experiment on you.\u201d\u00a0 For those who got vaccinated, Ted said he will talk \u201ctheir language and speak to them thusly:\u00a0 \u2018Baaaah, Baaaah, Baaahhh\u2019,\u201d (imitating sheep).\u00a0 Will Nugent join other outspoken rockers like Kid Rock or Eric Clapton (and some country artists) who have said they will not perform at any venue that require mandates like masks or proof of vaccination for entry? Ironically, since Clapton himself has contracted COVID, his camp has been very mum on the subject.\u00a0 Stay tuned as the continuing \u2018to vax or not to vax\u2019 drama unfolds.\u00a0 I can not accept the, \u201cOh, they had other health problems so it wasn\u2019t COVID that killed them\u201d reasoning some use.\u00a0 \u201cCulling the herd\u201d I have heard some call it.\u00a0 How pathetic this sounds!\u00a0 Vaccinations protect those around us, particularly those with on-going health concerns.\u00a0 We can only offer sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones during this ongoing pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Those of us of a certain age remember the push for public school students to have \u2018their shots\u2019 before being enrolled in school.\u00a0 As a youngster who really didn\u2019t like needles, I sucked it up because my parents said it was something I needed to keep me healthy.\u00a0 When polio vaccines transitioned from a shot in the arm to ingesting a sugar cube (with a pink splotch on it) by mouth, needle-phobic kids like me rejoiced.\u00a0 Our parents knew the dangers of childhood diseases that touched nearly every family and neighborhood before vaccinations were developed.\u00a0 I was too young to hear the sad tales about those became deaf, crippled, or died from the ravages of childhood illnesses.\u00a0 Kids talked about these things while standing in line for a TB test or dose of polio vaccine.\u00a0 I can not recall one instance of \u2018so and so\u2019s parents won\u2019t let them get the shot.\u2019\u00a0 Perhaps the anti-vax movement today thrives because a) there are generations who have grown up without losing loved ones from largely eradicated* childhood diseases, b) too many people have succumbed to the \u2018I read it on the internet so it must be true\u2019 fixation, or c) some combination of a) and b).\u00a0 (*\u2019eradicated\u2019 or not, there are documented surges in some of these afflictions whose return can only be attributed to those who have decided to swallow the \u2018anti-vax pill\u2019, so to speak).\u00a0 Not protecting your children is yet another path toward removing your family DNA from the human population.\u00a0 My wife\u2019s cousin in Finland recently wrote about the vaccination protocols undertaken in that country.\u00a0 She mentioned needing to show her vaccination card to buy tickets to a concert.\u00a0 She was completely confused why so many in America are resistant to protecting themselves.\u00a0 It is not unheard of in this country – try and buy tickets to get into the Las Vegas Raiders\u2019 stadium, for instance, and you will find they, too, have a \u2018must present proof of vaccination\u2019 caveat that must be met.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over the last year or so, WLUC-TV\u2019s long-time weatherman said he was \u2018fired\u2019 because the parent company who owns the station has a mandatory vaccination order for all employees.\u00a0 I can only assume this means he was not vaccinated and had no plans to comply.\u00a0 It caused enough of a blip in the news to show up in a few mainstream media markets and on the internet (perhaps it was a slow news day?).\u00a0 It sounds less like he was \u2018fired\u2019 and more like he \u2018made a choice\u2019.\u00a0 The company had a \u2018terms of employment\u2019 clause he decided he could not work under.\u00a0 When I first began teaching, we had to submit to a yearly TB test.\u00a0 Years earlier, I had to do the same to work in a kitchen.\u00a0 At that time, I reacted to the test and the doctor who read my shot informed me I was having an allergic reaction to the \u2018carrier\u2019 used for the test (which was much better news than, \u201cYes, son, you have TB!\u201d).\u00a0 He suggested I get a yearly chest x-ray in lieu of the needle prick test.\u00a0 The yearly TB test was one of my \u2018terms of employment\u2019 so refusing to get the test or x-ray was my choice.\u00a0 I chose to do what was necessary for me to be employed.\u00a0 The intent of this policy was to keep my students and their families healthy and not some evil government plot.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yes, you give your kids the car keys, but not until they have taken Driver Education.\u00a0 It is called \u2018education\u2019.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want to let Darwin take the wheel of their health and well being without educating them about the history of vaccinations and why they were developed in the first place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 A little lighter touch after some serious discussion – courtesy of Johnny Rivers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Browsing the books on sale at the local St. Vinnie\u2019s, I came upon an interesting title.\u00a0 I never added it to my retirement book reading list because I couldn\u2019t finish it.\u00a0 It was a collection of stories about the ways people remove themselves from the human race and are thus prevented from contributing their 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