“Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You…”

“Ask what you can do for your country,” is a portion of a line in JFK’s inaugural address that has the same stature as “Four score and seven years ago,” or “December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy.”  In other words, JFK was my Pushkin of America’s nemesis, Russia.

Alexander Pushkin, born in 1799, was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.  Mr. Pushkin gets quoted all the time by Russian politicians, no matter how they lean, although lately they all seem to have legs of PUTIN on the ritz-rubber.  And that rare status of one-liners was fairly limited with the exception of Lincoln, TR, JFK, and FDR who often are quoted by politicians sitting on both sides of the aisle.

The question that precedes the line I’ve noted and headlined is, “Ask not what your country can do for you?” So, how do YOU answer that question with the phrase, “Ask what you can do for your country?”

Each of us in our own way can make a difference in battling a pandemic that has had an impact of lost life and liberty as grave as what followed that military attack of December 7, 1941, — a date that somehow did live in infamy.  And for some in this world — that date found the road to hell, a.k.a. INFAMY.  Who wants a celebrated date if it doesn’t also garner a bit of FAME and celebrity?  Seriously!

The response, “Ask what you can do for your country,” is really so, so, so simple for Americans to accomplish, thus making a difference against a worldwide enemy, which only happens in the comics or their manifestations on the silver screen.  That collective spirit might have happened in real life once upon a time, but that ship sailed a long, long time ago.  Maybe that’s what we need more of — a collective spirit that believes in US rather than only ME.   

WEAR A MASK!

Let’s reconsider the politicization of wearing masks for 100 days or so; let’s see if by following that mandate to WEAR A MASK, we might actually find a light at the end of this Coronavirus Rabbit Hole.

If you WEAR A MASK, you can truly be proud that YOU have answered that call, “Ask what you can do for your country.”  By donning that mask, we all make it more difficult for Corona to reignite her reign of terror.  And if we slow Corona down, we just might buy enough time to have the magic of a novel vaccine creation produced by companies using MRNA Technology – molecules in our cells that pass genetic instructions from our DNA to particles that make proteins, the building blocks of life.

MRNA Technology molecules can be produced rapidly in a lab, programmed with a bit of the virus’s genetic code.  The MRNA vaccine teaches the immune system, what the virus looks like so that if the real virus shows up, your soul of immunity goes BALLISTIC all over CORONA.  And according to the testing program with all those wonderful Americans who did stand up for their country, the vaccine efficacy rate is 94/95 percent.  Even Dr. Fauci, a Faustian figure if I’ve ever seen — and that is said with great devotion, admitted that if a vaccine secured a 70% efficacy rate, that would be a major accomplishment in record time.

So, let’s not forget that the only reason the efficacy ratings could be ascertained so quickly was due in part to an extensive testing program featuring thousands and thousands of volunteers from all different age groups and ethnicities willing to GO DO GOOD and be guinea pigs on behalf of their country and countrymen.  Those volunteers heard the call and if JFK were alive today, I’m sure he’d flash that IRISH dimpled smile and flicker those eyes that bewitched so many in his way of sharing a KUDO.

So please, for the love of all that’s good, WEAR A MASK.

William Natale is the author of the children’s book, Woolly Wurm;  “1968 – A Story As Relevant Today As It Was Then (based on a true story about two white teens who wind up working in an all-black factory immediately following the assassination of Dr. MLK; and The Resurrection of Boraichee (a story described quirky and clever with a bit of reincarnation as a DOG serves as the narrator about a family suffering from the opioid epidemic).  All but the children’s book can be found on Amazon/KINDLE.