couple of years. That's a lot of people. Globally, the situation is even worse.
My 96-year-old parents were among those killed by that virus. My wife and I were not. Why? Because as soon as the fact that there was a pandemic, we began taking precautions against being exposed to it. Then, when vaccines were available, we took them, along with later boosters that were recommended.
There are crises all the time. We recently headed for our basement, because there was a tornado warning. Random stuff. But, we had planned for such a thing. Had our house been in the path of a tornado, we probably would have survived. I don't worry about a tornado every time there is a thunderstorm, but I have a plan that will help me survive if one occurs. I expect never to die in a tornado, and my expectations have a high probability of being accurate.
In my lifetime, we didn't have a nuclear war, although that was a real worry. I didn't catch polio as a child, although many did, with some dying from it. When Martin Luther King marched across the Edmund Pettis bridge, I was aware that going there might be a risk, but I went there nevertheless. I was a day late due to car trouble, but I did hear him speak the next day. I was optimistic that what he had to say might help make things better, so I was there, as a 19-year-old white college dropout from a small town in California.
Millions died at the hands of Hitler in an insane campaign to destroy the Jews of the world. Droughts kill uncounted numbers of people in Africa on a pretty regular basis.
Life's uncertain. It always has been. Now, we're facing a likely warming of the planet, with rising sea levels and worse. It is already causing a historic drought in the American West. We seem unable to do what might reverse this trend or slow it down. We're trying, and in many ways, but perhaps not quickly enough. And yet, in the 1970s and 80s, I was writing magazine articles about solar power and how it would be an important thing.
You think of me one way. But you do not know me. You do not know what I am doing and have done. That all started in 1965, when I was just 20 years old and read and listened to people writing and talking about the terrible impact our increasing population would have on the planet. So, I decided then not to reproduce and create more mouths to feed. Now, I'm almost 77 years old, and have accomplished that goal.
You seem to think you know me. You do not. I remain optimistic, in the sense that I believe we can do things that will help with our problems. One of those is helping Democrats win elected offices at every level. I write about that here and elsewhere constantly. I also write about optimistic philosophies that encourage action.
So, there you are.
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