by Peter Twitchell
In a hundred years will it be necessary to use N95 face masks to protect ourselves from infections? Face masks protected us from the flu and tuberculosis in our past.
Today a grown adult man with grey hair said to me, “I can’t understand why you’re wearing a face mask?” So far a hundred thousand Americans died of the COVID-19 virus within a four (4) month period.
In one of the discussions it was stated in the twenty years of the Vietnam War over 50 thousand American lives were taken.
Wearing a mask, social distancing, hunkering down is a cautious precaution to protect each other from the virus there is no cure for yet.
How do we validate the seriousness of the virus beyond the fatalities it’s caused? Be smart, protect yourself and others. We hear about infection in our ocean infecting sea mammals, birds, affecting the food chain.
In years past our Yup’ik Elders kept our Tundra pristine clean. Later they instructed their grand kids to protect the tundra, lakes, and sloughs. After they saw how polluted the land was, with a sad heart later in their lives they stated, even our people are polluting our tundra and rivers with trash like cans, wrappers, motor oil containers, cigarette butts, alcohol bottles, dead batteries, outboard motors, 3/4 wheelers, shot shells.
We, mankind collectively are disrespecting our planet by trashing it. I have seen in the last five years, kids tossing their pop cans and candy wrappers on the ground. Once I saw both parents with two kids when one kid tossed a pop can on the ground and the dad and mom saw this and walked right over that trash even with a dumpster not twenty feet away.
I blame the parents, not the kids. Let’s not trash another village. At least take your trash home with you.
