We Are Mack

Dear Jacinda,

Yesterday you described some ‘anti-vaxxers’ who have been accused of making death threats to MP’s as “A small group of people who are unhappy”.

You smiled and dismissed the ‘unhappiness’ of what you consider a small group. Your arrogance and disdain for people who may or may not be ‘anti-vaxxers’ are deeply distressing, as that term is now a sweeping generalisation for anyone who dares to question your position. People are vilified for holding a different point of view.

Death threats are completely unacceptable, of course. My concern is that you wholly fail to see that people whom you write off as ‘anti-vaxxers’ believe that they are being subjected to threatening and frightening behaviour by the government.

They also don’t trust you.

On the 20th of September 2020 you said, “Not only will there be no forced vaccinations, but those who choose to opt out won’t face any penalties at all.” Yet this week teachers and nurses, among others, have been forced out of their jobs.

Law-abiding, conscientious people are now under threat and to dismiss this so airily is arrogance on a grand scale. Have you any idea, Jacinda, what you are doing to citizens? Have you even once laid awake at night and wondered have I got this wrong? How else could we do this?

People are frightened, their livelihoods have either gone or are about to go and they can’t adequately and reliably put food on the table for their kids. They are worried about the impact of your mandates and traffic lights on their lives – and that is nothing to do with being a so-called ‘anti-vaxxer.’

Do you really have so little appreciation for just how difficult life under your government has become? Your salary continues to swell your bank account, as it does for all your MPs. Not one of you lives in the real world, where living hand-to-mouth is not a quaint concept but a reality of every single day. It is callous to be planning your wedding when the rest of us cannot plan Christmas dinner let alone where that may be.

Dig out your copy of Dr Seuss’s Yertle the Turtle that you surely read to Neve.

Dr Seuss’s story reminds us that the desire for political gain at the expense of those who are enslaved can only have disastrous results.

It can also be used as an example of change management and a case study of how not to do it.

Mack, that turtle at the bottom of the stack, tried to warn Yertle, that he was in distress.  “I’ve pain in my back and my shoulders and knees.  How much longer must we stand here, Your Majesty, please.”

Yertle, an arrogant, increasingly power-hungry ruler didn’t listen.

Mack tried again, on behalf of his mates.

“Then again, from below, in the great heavy stack, came a groan from that plain little turtle named Mack.  Your Majesty, please… I don’t like to complain, But down here below, we are feeling great pain. I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, But down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights. We turtles can’t stand it. Our shells will all crack! Besides, we need food. We are starving!” groaned Mack.”

Mack burped and brought down the throne of the King.

We are Mack, Jacinda. We too have had enough. Enough of the lies, of ever-changing rules and regulations. Of ever-increasing mandates and ever-decreasing rights to our own bodies, our own lives, our own decision-making, our right to be back home in New Zealand.

You have gone too far, Jacinda. Too far with your strategy of elimination. Too far with legislation pushed through under urgency. Too far with politics of segregation and division causing distress to us all.

You have not taken us with you as a good leader would. You are keeping us locked in and locked down and locked up. You are Yertle standing on all the loyal turtles below you.

We accepted the double-dose vaccine because we believed you that it was the way through. But it isn’t enough for you. Employers are now required to manage your forced vaccination programme and it is difficult enough to keep a business going at the present time without the added burden of time and money to do this for you, let alone the loss of skilled, valued, respected unvaccinated staff, due to your mandates.

Now you are about to mandate a third, booster shot, despite information from qualified and reliable sources including the WHO, who say they are not necessary for everyone, and may not be required at all.

Dr. Tedros reiterated that only immunocompromised people should be administered booster doses. “It is not about how many people are vaccinated, it’s about who is vaccinated. It makes no sense to give boosters to healthy adults or to vaccinate children.

Why, Jacinda, are you doing this in the face of the qualified opinion of real experts?

Many of us have simply had enough. Those who are issuing death threats are wrong to do so, completely wrong, but they are reacting out of fear.

Fear breeds anger and we are increasingly angry.

Jacinda, please remember Mack, way down in the stack.