RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL HEALTH
The Return of Polio
You have a right to believe
Anything you want to believe
As long as it does no harm
To any other living being
But when your beliefs
Become weapons that harm and kill
You no longer possess that right
You may choose to believe
Against all empirical evidence
Against all accumulated knowledge
For reasons political or societal
That vaccines are works of the devil
That science and medicine are facades
Invented to control the masses
That polio and the Spanish flu
Were not the threats we are told they were
But when your actions or inactions
Result in the needless suffering
Of your children and mine
Then you have lost your way
And must somehow be reclaimed
No one wants a mandate
But in matters of health and survival
Mandates become necessary