I may start calling these awkward “Comments of the Day on Comments of the Day” tag-team Comments of the Day. coming up is the tag section of Steve-O’s epic, a follow-up by Glenn Logan.
Here is his Comment of the Day on the post, “Comment Of The Day: “Afternoon Ethics Warm-Up, 3/23/2020: Examining The—OH NO! I TOUCHED MY FACE!!”…
Everyone these days is so … tribal. We fostered this thinking and romanticized it in fiction and documentary, the whole “brothers in arms” thing. This person is asking for America to abdicate to communism so they can be safer, and using the occasion to slander genuine camaraderie with his/her anti-capitalist grievances.
They don’t see the sacrifice of every day people who are out of work, out of money, and out of prospects for the immediate future of regaining the means to pay their mortgage or car payment or insurance or children’s clothing, needs and food. The government will step up and help, but to many that means a tiny portion of their salary or income, and not enough to keep all their needs funded.
Nobody is asking health workers to work for free. They get paid very well for what they do, and nobody can make them work if they don’t want to. So if you are afraid of catching the disease, then quit your job and join one of my bests friend in the unemployment line. That, at least, shows you are willing to sacrifice your livelihood for your safety — certainly understandable in some cases. In many other cases, it is simple cowardice, but I won’t even judge. Just stop demanding others sacrifice more on your behalf than you are willing to sacrifice yourself.
I risked my life at depths greater than 200 feet and speeds greater than 15 knots in places where enemy forces were willing and able to send me and my 100+ shipmates on a one-way tour of Davey Jones’ Locker. I didn’t demand the government send us on safer missions, or add a layer of armor to the hull of the ship. I didn’t moan because the air quality sucked and everybody smelled like sweat, cigarettes, machine oil, and CO2 scrubber. I didn’t demand a radiation suit to go into the reactor compartment to perform maintenance in order to avoid doses of ionizing radiation, or to stand port and starboard watch rotations, or sleep in a box even a mortician wouldn’t dignify with the word “coffin” that I shared with another guy who kept it warm while I was on watch and vice-versa.
I didn’t tell the captain to knock off the exercises in a North Atlantic storm where we took rolls greater than 40 degrees for eight straight hours with gallon cans of bug juice and Coke syrup breaking lose from their storage and exploding on the bulkheads in the mess hall, or the 60 or so men who power-puked their way through that ungodly hell — all for an exercise. We did it because we were ordered to, and we did what we were ordered to do for the good of all our brothers and sisters back home.
I just did my damned job, for damned little, and I’m damned proud of the work I did. And I’d do it again tomorrow if I were called. Why? Because nobody held a gun to my freaking head and made me join the Navy, or volunteer for the submarine force. Just like nobody held a gun to your head and made you become a doctor — a profession which, by the way, makes more on average in a month than I did in a year.
So in other words, sod off, swampy. A lot of us have risked our lives. Learn to deal with it, or become a dentist or cosmetic surgeon — something safe where you can lose your job at a time like this and get in the unemployment line with so many others.
Ethics Alarms 
motioned seconded….never give a submariner a reason to really tell you his(her) opinion, unless you want to hear it….
when I decided to leave the service, I did it at my choice, for my reasons, not to be a hero….
Heh. Word.
Good read both times. Congrats Glenn
Thanks, Chris.
Thank you, Jack, for the COTD. And also for my favorite Benjamin Franklin quote.
Having watched a lot of WW2 documentaries and knowing a guy who still suffers from PTSD after being pinged by the Soviets during an undersea cat and mouse chase, I congratulate you for taking on becoming a member of the Silent Service. Why don’t we all do the best we can and give up this whiny “I’m oppressed” bullshit.
Amen, brother.
And if you think me and my shipmates had it bad, those WWII “submarines” were little more than surface ships with some underwater capability. They were tiny, 1000 times more dangerous to operate than the 688-class ship I was on, and the difference in habitability is roughly the difference between living in a prison cell with three cellmates and a cruise ship.
Those guys were true submariners in the real men sense of the word!
I appreciate your comment, Glenn.
Thank you for your service-I don’t think I could do submarine work myself.
Thank you, but it was a privilege.
Great COTD Glenn and thanks for your service. I do have a couple of comments.
The statement that health workers get paid very well for what they do is only partially true. It is true that doctors are paid well but doctors represent only a small percentage of health workers. The people who actually provide most direct patient care are not doctors. They are certified nursing assistants, registered nurses, radiology technicians, food service personnel, phlebotomists, and housekeeping staff to name but a few. In my opinion, these are the true heroes among health care workers. They run essentially the same risk of infection as doctors and typically earn in the range of eleven to fifteen dollars per hour, except for registered nurses who make about thirty. To earn this they empty bedpans, mop up puke, and in general ensure that the patient is kept clean, fed, watered, and the doctors’ orders are carried out. If these people get sick due to not have proper equipment, who is going to take care of your family member lying in their own bowel movements or needing a drink of water?
Also keep in mind that having the proper personal protective equipment is not just a matter of keeping the health care workers safe but also of protecting the patient. Infection goes both ways—if patient cooties can jump on me, then my cooties can jump on them. If any of the many health workers do not use the proper equipment and follow procedures, they become a vector for transmitting infection from one patient to another. If needs must we will make do, but are you sure it is OK for health workers to go without proper equipment or make do with jury-rigged substitutes when the consequence may very well be your family member being infected?