Back in 1933, Walt Disney Studios released an eight-minute animated short, ‘The Three Little Pigs’, which featured three musical pigs, a ravenous wolf, and a moral lesson.
The pig who plays the flute builds a house of straw, and the pig who plays the fiddle builds his house of sticks.
Like typical musicians, these two pigs are rather naive, especially about wolves. And possibly, also, about vaccinations, although Disney doesn’t specifically address this question.
The third pig appears, in the Disney version, to be somewhat wealthier than his brothers, and also smarter. Not only can he afford a brick house, he also owns a piano. As things turn out, both the brick house and the piano come into play when a big, bad wolf shows up at the straw house, and then at the stick house, and huffs and puffs both houses into oblivion, causing the less affluent brothers to seek shelter in the third pig’s brick house.
When the wolf tries — unsuccessfully — the old ‘huffing and puffing’ trick that worked so well previously, the third little pig teases the wolf unmercifully with virtuoso runs on the piano keyboard.
The wolf meets an unhappy circumstance when he decides to invade the brick house by sliding down the chimney… into a pot of boiling water. Disney allows the wolf to run off down the road, crying in pain, instead of ending up boiled to death, as in the original folktale.
When the villain runs off down the road, into the sunset, it’s time for the little pigs to break out their musical instruments and dance a jig.
We have our own tales to share, in 2022. Some of them concern the illness known as COVID-19, and the stories can seem all too real.
To judge by the latest data shared by San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH), we might get the impression that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has headed off down the road. The 7-day average of new daily cases in Archuleta County has remained at one case or less since February 23.
But some folks are still worried about the wolf. Is he lurking in the forest, nursing his burnt tail, and planning another run at the brick house?
Here in Archuleta County, we have a big, bad difference of options, about who, exactly, is playing the role of the wolf.
A Daily Post reader recently sent me the following warning, as part of what appears to be a group email.
This was a prepping. Please review this power point presentation, given by SJBPH this last Tuesday morning [April 19] at the BOCC work session. This is a prelude of what is coming. I believe this fall. We cannot afford to be divided now more than ever. We must push back and prepare as never before. I fear this fall is when it will be tried again. Please we need to put our personal differences aside. If we do not, I fear us being divided (currently) will be our undoing. Please forward this to everyone. This will be our last stance for Freedom…
The email warning comes from the perspective that SJBPH and the public health industry in general — with the able assistance of other government agencies, mainstream media, and big tech — were able to use the COVID pandemic as an excuse to usurp our constitutionally-defined freedoms… and that the past two years were merely a dry run, a “prepping”, with even greater levels of social oppression on the horizon.
The big, bad wolf is, in other words, a conglomerate of special interest groups, including public health, health care, big pharma, the ‘deep state’… and the folks who support those interests. And We the People are the little pigs.
I did not attend the April 19 work session, at which SJBPH Executive Director Liane Jollon summarized the results of recent public health efforts by her agency, and the outlook for the future. But the email I received included a copy of Ms. Jollon’s power point presentation, which you can download here.
I reviewed the power point presentation, looking for evidence of something that might be “tried again”, something that would require us to make a “last stance for Freedom.”
What I found, at the beginning of the presentation, were several pages summarizing the ‘Foundational Capabilities’ that public health districts and agencies are expected to possess here in Colorado. The ‘Foundational Capabilities’ include ‘Health Equity’, ‘Assessment and Planning’, ‘Communications’, ‘Policy Development’, ‘Partnerships’, ‘Organizational Competencies’, and ‘Emergency Preparedness and Response’.
These ‘Capabilities’ are expected to apply to every type of public health service provided by SJBPH.
One of the core services is communicable disease prevention. Investigating and controlling disease outbreaks.
But SJBPH normally has other duties to perform, as well. Restaurant inspections. Permitting of septic systems. Maternal, child and family health services. Chronic disease and injury prevention. Dealing with behavioral health issues, including drug addiction and abuse. Ensuring equitable access to health care.
About halfway through the power point slides, we come to a segment focused on COVID-19.
One of the slides indicates how many of the ‘Foundational Services’ were ‘hindered’ as staff were reassigned to support the COVID response, and certain services were moved onto the back burner.
In the slide, we find the acronym, ‘LHDs which translates as ‘Local Health Districts’.
We might be able to imagine what it felt like, for the staff at SJBPH, then the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic, and Colorado’s governor Jared Polis subsequently began issuing public health orders regarding mask-wearing, public gatherings, business lock-downs, school closures and so on.
Probably felt a bit like the house of straw had been blown down. So to speak.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.