A Conversation Worth Sharing

So this morning, I was sitting in a dealer lobby, drinking coffee, working on lesson plans, and waiting for my car to get serviced. The gentleman who came to give me the estimate on costs leaned down to show me the breakdown and commented on the mask I had just used to cover my nose and mouth.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m vaccinated.”

“No worries. I’m just wearing it as a precaution, because I teach 72 fifth graders who can’t get vaccinated and I just want to make sure they’re protected from anything I might give them without knowing.”

“Well, I was a cop and they forced us to get the vaccine,” he came back with. “And now I can’t be a cop anymore, because the vaccine destroyed my lungs. That’s why I’m here. But it’s better pay.”

“Really? Tell me about that.”

“So I had COVID twice and it was fine. But after they forced us to get the vaccine, I got a collapsed lung. But it is what it is.”

“Aw, man. I’m really sorry to hear about that. This whole thing really sucks.”

I wasn’t disregarding of his claim and gave him the floor to share, without judgment. But after he left, I got to thinking, and wanted some clarification. Hospitals send a record of vaccine anomalies to the CDC, so that they can be tracked as a matter of public information, so I took a glance at the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and noted that only 17 people in the entire country had experienced “lung disorders” in 2021. So he’s either one of those rare anomalies, or he’s embellishing his experience, drawing lines between dots on different pages, or he’s flat out lying.

But I still didn’t want to judge an experience that I couldn’t verify.

About an hour after that initial conversation, another gentleman came to ask if I was okay, and asked which service guy had been helping me. I didn’t know his name, so the gentleman prodded.

“Was he the tall middle aged white guy, kinda bigger?”

“The one who used to be a cop?” I asked.

“Yah. That’s the one. Cool. He’s a good guy.”

“Absolutely. He told me he can’t be a cop anymore.”

“Yah. He had an injury. Had his spine infused or something like that.”

And then I remembered the brace he was wearing. Dude was injured, not banished from the force because of a vaccine, which, by the way, was never mandated by the local police departments in our area, or in this state.

When he popped back in to tell me the car was almost done, again, I wasn’t judging and didn’t want to accuse him of anything, so I just asked some more questions.

“Where were you a cop?” I asked.

“Just up the road. Sanford.”

“And they mandated the vaccine?”

“Apparently. That’s what I thought they said.”

“Huh. How long did you serve?”

“Bout a year. But I’m glad to have this job. That wasn’t the life for me. I didn’t like the politics of it.”

He went on to share a couple of situations from the line of duty that he felt uncomfortable with, so I listened and conceded his dislike of being a cop.

“Fair enough, bud. Thanks for the time you gave. Public service is hard, to be sure. Sounds like you have good hours here.”

“Definitely. And better pay.”

“Awesome, man. Keep me posted when the car is ready.”

It’s not my place to say what someone does or doesn’t do with their life or their vocation. And it’s not my place to fault someone for leaving, or having no choice but to leave that vocation. But what I have a problem with is people stretching, bending, or twisting the truth to fit a position, especially on this. In his case, he already didn’t like being a cop, and he got injured, but he made his career change about the vaccine.

So here’s what I’m saying. Ask questions. Ask GOOD questions. If someone tells you that they experienced something “far worse” with the vaccine, as if the vaccine is more of a threat than COVID, please do more than nod your head and log it as another story in your rolodex of fears about listening to the experts who have spent their entire lives working to ensure our lasting health. Most vaccine anomalies are truly that. Anomalies.

As a society, we’ve started treating the word of strangers as gospel. It’s not. And it’s okay to think critically about what you’re hearing, without judging or condemning the person you hear. As I was paying my bill, he asked me to give him a good review on the survey I’ll get in the mail, which I plan to do, because he was very nice, hospitable, and he took good care of my car. Life can still go on, with honesty.

Peace out.