Politics, Religion and COVID

Growing up, many of us were taught that there were two things you just didn't talk about in public settings — politics and religion. It made sense. After all, both of those subjects are deeply personal. Discussing either one in public settings would inevitably end up with someone getting upset. 

It seems like COVID needs to be added to that list. 

From the start, COVID was a polarizing issue. That polarization has exponentially increased as we have lived more than two years dealing with its effects.

In the October issue of D.O.M. magazine, Gordon Dupont wrote "The COVID-19 Aftermath." I’ll admit — like many of you, I’m tired of hearing about COVID. However, when reviewing and editing Dupont’s article, I felt that he was sincerely discussing how COVID has affected us. After all, Gordon is known as the “Father of the Dirty Dozen,” and has been researching and educating us for years on how Human Factors affect us at work and in our personal lives. Think of all the human factors we have faced when dealing with COVID over the past few years — Lack of Knowledge; Fatigue; Pressure; Lack of Resources; Complacency. The list goes on.

Well, a few people took offense to Mr. Dupont’s article. Maybe more did, but didn’t take the time to send me an email?

Mr. G. Stultz send me an email with a subject line of “Lack of brains or balls?” In it, he said:

Hello Mr. Escobar,

I am very disappointed with the content and tone of this month’s DOM Magazine article by Mr. Dupont re the background and fallout associated with Covid 19.

Why did you agree to publish this PC puff piece, riddled as it is with factual errors and PC sheepthink re: deaths attributable to “Covid 19”, nods to racism, mental health, even a paragraph or two re working from home??? Why is your publication supporting the false narrative that there actually was a “pandemic” and not what it was, a variant of seasonal flu? Dupont also shoehorned in support for the demonstrably false and dangerous narrative asserting/suggesting Covid vaccines are helpful when in fact they are less than worthless in warding off Covid infection and are a proven source of harm to many, possibly all, who took them. Surely you know now that the overwhelming number of folks diagnosed with (and dying from) Covid have had the shot and often numerous boosters as well? You are not stupid Joe, why did you publish this discredited dribble?

Mr. W. Barks had this to say:

I have been the DOM of a power and water utility company flight department for 18 years. I led our team thru the “covid pandemic” and managed the very difficult issues presented by this issue. All I can say is after spending massive amounts of time educating myself on this issue both during and after the pandemic, you should have skipped publishing this very poorly written propaganda piece on this individual’s opinion on covid. I almost stopped reading it by the bottom of the first column. To give if fair criticism I needed to read it all. This was a massive waste of print and paper space. I was disappointed to see such a poorly educated option on this subject printed in your magazine. It provided nothing but more dividing opinions on a subject that is still a very sore spot for many professionals who came to work every single day before, during and since the “pandemic.”  

Thinking about it more, I guess I don’t need to add COVID to the list of things I won’t discuss in public (or in the pages of D.O.M. magazine). After all, it really falls under politics. This became a political issue from the start. I may be one of the few people who has managed to stay neutral on the subject. Unless you are a close friend or family member, you don’t know my vaccine status or masking philosophy. Those are personal decisions. I won’t suggest to vaccine or not, nor will I judge masking choices. Those are YOUR personal decisions to make. You need to do what is best for you and your family.

One thing I will continue to be a proponent of is being civil to one another. I have friends and family who are Republicans and Democrats. I have friends and family who have made vaccination and masking choices different than mine. I have friends and family of different ethnicities. How can we fix all the problems we face at work and in life if we can’t at least be civil to one another?

Thanks for reading, and your feedback is ALWAYS appreciated!

Joe