Jogging and Public Health

If you've been reading The Thurber Brigade for some time you'll know that I like running/jogging. It has been the topic of numerous blogs from dealing with the pandemic to running just for pleasure. My first experience with jogging was as a punishment.

One day at gym class at Jardine Junior High in Topeka, KS, Coach Tryon came in and was pissed. He yelled at us a bit then said we were going on a “fun run.” We got into a single line and then headed from the gym to around the football field, up an embankment to around the temporary classrooms (the grounds were large) around the main building and parking lot, eventually ending back at the gym. While the other kids bitched and moaned, I loved it and would eventually do fun runs on my own around my neighborhood. 

My gym class was being punished for the ungodly sin of leaving a towel out after a class. Who actually did it no one knew. All of us had to pay though. He was teaching us a lesson. Oh, it surely was with the idea that we should throw our towels in the hamper after using them, but it was more. He really taught us that we were all in this together. Yes, it had been one evil person who left out the towel. However, we all had a responsibility to check on everyone and make sure everyone followed the rules. 

He wasn’t teaching us a bad lesson on justice. He was teaching us a lesson, via socialization, that as a society we all had to work together.

As a society, we experience these lessons all the time in different environments.  In the army, this lesson was taught to us with even more urgency as it is critical for each unit to work as a team in order to survive. We absolutely had to look out for the other guy in the foxhole with us.

Even though this lesson of collective responsibility permeates our society, it's always a shock when people ignore it.

That is what is happening with the COVID-19 pandemic here in the U.S.  almost a third of the population has ignored their upbringing, disregarded the lesson that is pounded into each of us and has instead opted out. 

People shout they want freedom and refuse to wear a mask. However, it is not infringing their freedom, it is only an inconvenience. Like making your son wear a seat belt or telling your daughter not to run with scissors. It’s for their wellbeing as well as that of the family. 

Instead of believing that we are all in this together, this small group is saying it's all about them. Their vain individual needs are more important than the wellbeing of all of us. Screw you is their unspoken motto. 

Although wearing a mask and getting the shot will help all of us get past this pandemic, this minority of people refuse to join the team. It doesn't matter that there are far worse requirements that everyone must follow and everyone does (driver's license to drive, measles shots to go to school, take off your shoes to go through airport security, etc.), because of recent political opposition, this little act of goodwill is vilified. 

It's time for everyone to put politics behind them and join the team. Work with all of us to get over this pandemic. Just as Americans joined together to survive World War II, we need to work together to end this war.

So get the shot. Wear the mask. If not, Coach Jay is going to yell at you and take you on a “fun run.”