In 1951 when I was two years old, there was no vaccine for the measles, and I came down with a very severe case of it.

Of course, I have no memory of it, but my aunts Joan and Jane used to tell me about it and how they’d help my mother take care of me. They’d hold me and walk me back and forth as I was running a high fever.

I don’t know just how severe my case was, naturally, but I do know that before the vaccine became available, hundreds of children died from it in this country every year, and many, many more world-wide.

Now there are lots of parents who are refusing to get their children vaccinated and we’re seeing more and more outbreaks of the disease. There was one right here in Philadelphia just last year and now there’s one in Texas. A lot of this vaccine refusal comes directly from religion. Religion makes people stupid in so many ways. Religion kills.

And because the Republican congress critters have decided they’re no longer interested in governing but they care more about retaining their seats in congress (what’s the point, if they aren’t going to govern?), they’re rubber stamping all the unqualified assholes that The Convicted Felon is nominating, including RJK Jr, who doesn’t believe in vaccines.

I find myself wishing that the children of all those parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated would die a horrible death in front of their parents just to teach the parents a lesson. And then I’m ashamed of myself for having such a terrible thought; the children shouldn’t be punished for the stupidity of the parents. Then I remember, if the children die, it’s not because of anything that I wished for, it’s because their parents didn’t get them vaccinated.

Wishing doesn’t make it so.

I really wish the parents would abandon their religion and get their children vaccinated.

But wishing doesn’t make it so.

I wish the Republicans would develop spines and reject the unqualified assholes.

But wishing doesn’t make it so.