Just Thinkin’: A few scary thoughts

By Hal McBride
Again, Halloween is almost here. Halloween has fine memories for me, from my Grandmother McBride’s tales of Hogmanay in the Scottish Highlands to my Father’s popcorn balls to the creative costumes Billie fashioned from nothing for our boys to sharing Snicker bars with my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I was thinking about Halloween and scary creatures as I settled back to read my local daily newspaper. A headline grabbed my attention. In a heartbeat, I knew what I most feared today. It isn’t ghost nor ghoul, not witches riding brooms nor walls of hanging chainsaws. What is it? Unbridled deception.

I had listened to a thorough account of the passing of a well-known military and diplomatic leader on NPR. There I learned the gentleman was in the terminal stages of Multiple Myeloma, an insidious form of cancer affecting the white blood cells in the marrow of the bones, and Parkinson’s Disease, a vile disorder of the central nervous system.

Although his death was near and the treatments for the diseases that were killing him had stripped him of his capacity to produce the antibodies required for the COVID-19 vaccine to protect him, he decided to take the COVID-19 vaccines anyway. He believed it was the example he wanted to set. This man was committed to being a solid role model right up to the end.

So, as I understood the circumstances, he took both basic vaccinations and the booster knowing it could do nothing to protect him personally.
In the end, COVID-19 killed him before Multiple Myeloma and Parkinson’ Disease could do it.

When I saw a headline proclaiming he died of COVID-19, I balked. Then, the article immediately stated he was fully vaccinated. Had I only read this headline and the first three paragraphs, I would have thought these facts were the sum of the tale.

Yes, the reporting is technically correct. But in my mind, the facts as reported were grossly misleading.

At about this point, I think some folks should be asking, “Didn’t he die of COVID-19?”  Yes, he did.  “Wasn’t he fully vaccinated?” Yes, he was. “So, what are you whining about?”
So, can the truth be misleading? Yes, it can. There in a reason we vow when giving testimony, “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

I think it distressed me that it wasn’t on a television network or social media outlet, places where deception and ambiguity are the names of the games. It was in my local newspaper.

“What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”  The Scottish author and poet, Sir Walter Scott, penned these words in his 1808 poem “Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field.” His words are wise yet today.

I went to our back porch, popped open a Coke and watched it fizz over the ice. I like this whole process. I watched a pair of squirrels playfully chasing each other around the yard. It always reminds me of youth and makes me smile. So do Halloweens and kids and Snicker bars.

We lost a good man. When did a guy dying of natural causes become a political matter?  I don’t know how to explain what I cannot understand.

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”
 – Leonardo da Vinci

McBride was raised in Haskell County and is the author of several books, which are available at the Haskell County Historical Society.