In Idaho, it’s time to arm the militia against COVID-19 and defeat the pandemic

My unvaccinated friends, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I understand the hesitancy. It’s a new kind of vaccine, and it was approved quickly. There have been reported side effects, some very rare but serious ones, perhaps even some deaths. I think I’m pretty up on the research, though I’m not a physician and can’t give you medical advice. Like you, I think it’s smart to study and weigh the risks and benefits carefully.

When Boston was struck with smallpox 300 years ago, it was the famous preacher Cotton Mather who urged colonists to vaccinate. But the medical establishment of 1721 fought him; they didn’t like this new method, and someone even bombed his house. More than half of Boston suffered the horrible disease that year. The primitive inoculation methods used back then saved many lives but also killed 2% of those vaccinated. Each family had to weigh those terrible odds.

This delta variant is the latest COVID-19 surge, but it won’t be the last. It is spreading among the unvaccinated without mercy, taking advantage of their unprepared defenses, leaving death, weakness and poverty in its wake. You get sick, and the bank can take your house, your business, the farm. Workers are absent, customers stay home. The known risks of the disease vs. the vaccine are pretty clear to me. COVID-19 stays around and infects a lot of organs, so even in terms of possible unknown, long-term effects — I fear the virus over the vaccine. “Long-term COVID” might be just the beginning. Many lethal viruses start with flu-like symptoms. I don’t trust this one to be a sleeper inside my cells.

Your body is what kills COVID-19, hopefully before it establishes a beachhead inside your organs. The vaccine preps your immune system for the invasion. The vaccine is your spy; it displays the enemy’s spike weapons and insignia so that your militia is prepared. Your bones manufacture specific antibodies to pierce their armor, and train killer t-cells that easily recognize and destroy the invaders — while you and your family sleep.

The good news is that the virus spike is no match for your prepared militia — if it’s prepared. The vaccine defense is 95% effective. Two weeks is all they ask. Two weeks for your marrow to manufacture custom weapons, recruit and train fresh fighters — and you’re armed to the teeth. You will annihilate the invader at your threshold, and prevent it from touching your loved ones. Your neighbors may not thank you, but your victory protects them, too. If enough of them pick up arms and join the fight, we will prevail. Our resistance, our preparation, our “immunitions” will destroy the invaders by the billions, until they are removed from our midst.

There will be some injured by side effects, and we should not forget them. But we must remember the 600,000 Americans slaughtered across the homeland. What would they tell us with that last breath withheld by our cruel enemy. These dead have propelled us to the battle and should not have died in vain.

I don’t know where this foreign invader came from, but I thank God we learned how to fight it. I’ve chosen not to sit on the sidelines and just hope. The government can’t win this war. All they’ll give you is a shot in the arm. They’ve done their part, Trump Biden Congress. Now, it’s up to us. A house-by-house, body-by-body fight. A war by the people, of the people and for the people. We can win it, if we arm every household. A well regulated militia being necessary for the security of the nation, this is a call to arms. The enemy is coming. The enemy is among us.

This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 1:44 PM.