It is too bad that we live in such obstinate times. It is has so many negative effects on so many facets of our lives. It derails and sort of sympathy, empathy or a yearning to understand anything. It makes us overly aggressive in venial ways.

Take Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. He recently sat before a Senate Panel in what President Donald Trump would have called a witch hunt. Fauci took the 5th Amendment on every question asked of him. He even refused to answer what color his tie was.

“There’s something happening here but what is isn’t exactly clear…”

I felt bad for Fauci. His hearing was a strange scene in American Political Surrealism. Here we have a long-time government official, a bureaucrat, with a presidential pardoned from possible future criminal charges for actions done in the past while he was toiling away as a mad scientist. So what is there to do? Steal his diary from his bedroom dresser. We then can all snicker at Fauci’s innermost thoughts and feelings. By stealing his diary and searching his private and untold thoughts I now sleep better knowing this brings us so much closer on how to deal with the next pandemic.

But this really reflects more about the state of inquiry in our country rather than say, searching for cures concerning the general welfare of the people. We settle for the clarity of watching grown adults, mostly adolescent men posing as gifted thinkers, in a political scrum pushing multiple invisible Rugby balls to non existent goal lines. It is where everybody gets to spike the ball. And then, we can watch the talking heads on the media of your choice for the play-by-play anlaysis.

Today, we are no closer to knowing anything about the Covid pandemic than we do about the origins of the Black Death in the 1300s. In fact, we probably know more, and can intellectually discuss the Bubonic Plague better than the ague that ran amongst us five years ago.

I would not have been surprised if a Senator asked Dr. Fauci about the gain-of-function research being done using the ground up powder from a unicorn horn’s. I think under the current mind set this would have been a legitimate question. According to World History Encyclopedia’s “Medieval Cures for the Black Death” this was cutting edge research, and just as nebulous as some of Trump’s suggested antidotes.

It was believed that “Drinking a powder made of the ground-up horn of the unicorn mixed in water was thought to be an effective remedy and was also among the most expensive.” Of course most of us know that the only way to catch a unicorn is for it “to be lulled into submission by a young virgin maiden.” A daunting task since both virgin maidens and unicorns are rare (We need to scour the pages of Dr. Fauci’s diary for clues.) and hence the expence.

Back then ground unicorn had a variety of uses from treating snake bites, “fever, convulsions, and serious wounds.” It was believed it would work “equally well with the plague.” Unfortunately, it seems the unicorn powder did not work any better than cures involving chicken or snakes. Unicorn powder was the 14th century miracle cure right up there with hydroxychloroquine, drinking bleach and UV lights.

But that is not the real big problem. It is logistics. If Dr. Fauci was using a Wuhan laboratory for this research, the problem was not one of securing the lab but in securing a unicorn. Unicorns are not native to China. Plus, unicorns are on the endangered specie list so using unicorns for scientific research would have been a crime. Killing an endangered species is a punisable offense: $50,000 fine and a year in prison, not to mention the use of young maidens. (Which, according to the Justice Department, is not a breach of public faith.)

“There’s battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong…”

What is clear is after the fact we are still manning the covid parapets like a besieged city in a Medieval castle. The only thing that seems to change is who is besieged at the time and who is catapulting the dead-diseased ideas over the wall. In this particular case it was GOP Senators chucking distorted questions down upon a beleaguered Dr. Fauci.

In this putrid political climate there is no way we can get to the bottom of anything. Not even a trash can–not when we keep bringing in more trash. Covid is no different. Did we do somethings right? Yes. Did we do somethings wrong? Yes. The problem is instead of sorting through the trash we keep bringing more to the can. In this case it is a star, struck 80 year-old man’s diary adding to the infinite amount of political garbage manufactured. All I can say is what a fellow worker once mumbled after the crew was told we needed to stay late on a Friday night: Give me a f**king break.

Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid. Step out of line, the men come and take you away

If anything I have no contempt for Dr. Fauci. In fact I feel sorry for him. This reminds me more of siblings going at it when a younger brother snatches his older teenage sister’s diary out of her top drawer of her dresser. The only thing holding back the embarrassment of this violation of privacy is a flimsy lock binding up her inner thoughts, desires and the nonsensical yearnings. But it is the act of having one’s innermost feelings revealed to the world that sets off her panic, and makes the younger brother feel like he has hit social pay dirt. In Fauci’s case it is political pay dirt.

It’s time we stop, Hey, what’s that sound? Everybody look, what’s going down?*

*Buffalo Springfield: For What it’s Worth.