Swine On The Mind.

One of the miracles the internet has brought us is the ability to track trouble in real time -- natural  and man-made disasters and epidemics world-wide on a daily basis. Having walked this planet pre-personal computers, pre-remote controls, pre-video games, pre-non-religious talk radio,
I guess I had no clue there were serial killers running rampant, sex offenders on every streets, earthquakes in foreign countries,  tsunamis sweeping lives and worlds away and nuclear reactors melting down.

Having been raised by a family that was neither Christian or Catholic, I has no clue I would be later told as an adult  that I was condemned to go to hell if I did not believe in Jesus Christ.
To me hell was an tomb of fire and screaming souls, Dante's Inferno, the place I vanquished my enemies in my head. It had nothing to do with religion. The idea that I would be sent there because I was born into a family that raised me with a differing set of religious and cultural beliefs than those whose parents raised them to believe in Jesus Christ... or missionaries who spread the word... made no sense to me.  It still doesn't. Believe want you want, just don't force your ideas on me.

I remember being in third grade, asked to read aloud, and not knowing what the word "Jesus" was...let alone how to pronounce it. I  stumbled over possible pronunciations as the class laughed at me, and the teacher stared in bewilderment.

There is a point to this blog, I promise. I am getting there.

In the course of my job I go places regular citizens wouldn't on a daily basis. Hospitals, jails, prisons, morgues. And  because most of my client base is attorneys who represent injured people, I  am dispatched to the injured. Many times, it is to their homes where they are wounded, they feel broken, desperate and come from completely different worlds with their own sets of beliefs.

Good old American red-nicks, rich folks, poor folks, Indian chiefs...
yuppies, gang-bangers,  soldiers, construction workers, holy-rollers and Hasidic Jews...
millionaires and people so poor...they are homeless.  Regardless of culture or religious beliefs,  seriously injured people are mostly shell shocked,  afraid, broken, and occasionally, suicidal.

When there is no home to meet in...  we converse under trees, in cars, at coffee shops. Mickey D's and flea bag motels. I meet Americans, Somalians,  Hawaiians, Koreans,  East Indians, Africans, Native Americans,   Japanese, Hindus,  Chinese, Iraquis, Iranians,  people from Russia,  Bali, Peru,  Fiji, Thailand, Vietna, Nepal, Libya and so many more more -- all who have immigrated to our country. The list of people from places I have met is as limitless as the cultural and religious imprints and beliefs on this planet.

Most of these people have children yet retain their cultural identity at home -- their spiritual or religious leanings, their specific arts, their fabulous foods with foreign smells.   I am always intrigued to walk in a new door.
I take a deep breathe, smell unusual spices. I look at the walls and the art is nothing like what's on my walls.  Generally speaking, this new generation of children born  to American immigrants demonstrates great love, respect, regard and protection for their parents. They translate for me,  and explain their parents worries in a way I understand enough to relay to attorneys helping them.

America has indeed become one mega melting pot and I truly believe there's room enough of this planet of ours for many religions, not just one or two. For many beliefs. For many forms of government.  For differing political parties and philosophies. For differences in both our thought patterns, physical appearances, genetic structures and of course, DNA codes.

That said, such exposure has its dangers. One being the limitless number of illness out there. I tend to stay healthy and avoid plagues. I tend to get my flu shot every fall or winter. I carry anti-bacterial hand lotion in my car and back. And if someone  sick needs to borrow my pen, or sign a declaration, I leave the pen with them. So I have been a bit cocky about my good health... until now.

About ten days ago I caught this "little cold" which then turned out to be a "little flu" which then turned out to be a big case of H1N1... swine flu. It threw me for a psychological and physical loop.

Being an Investigator, I  was determined to find out how I caught it.... because allegedly, the "flu" shot I got in December 2010 was precisely for that purpose. However, I did note, a little too late... the V.A. was requiring their patients to get a flu shot and an H1N1 shot. It was interesting at the time, though it did not correlate until the past ten days...  while I have been down for the count and doing massive research.  I wandered the internet as a distraction to the  feverish fluid filled wasteland called my body to see just how this could happen. And the results were startling.

H1N1 is alive, well and taking lives across WA state,  the US, and many countries on this planet right now. The reason is my best guess because I have no time to lay out the evidence here. Suffice to say,  many of the shots given in 2010... and the nose spray.... contained no NO H1N1 vaccine.
"Oops, we forgot" just doesn't cut it for me.

Allegedly someone high up figured this out so now the flu shots in 2011...  allegedly... contain both flu and H1N1 components. Other sources are telling me, this may not be true.  That one still has to specifically request an H1N1 vaccine.

And that is the whole point of today's blog. No murders, suicides or bear stories.
Just a warning to anyone who finds their way here today.
Truth be told, while writing.... I feel a bit like those folks on TV talk shows who tell their horrendous sagas  and say... "If I can just help one person, then it will all be worth it."
That is why I am connecting you to the following link.
Allegedly, it will allow you to follow the latest round of swine flu, H1N1 sweeping the nation... world.

Venezuela currently has it big time. And heaven (or wherever) forbid, it hits a quake, tsunami, refuge zone.
I can't imagine being without my blanket, chicken soup,  o.j., hot tea,  aloe coated kleenexes, vitamins,  internet and the full spectrum of satellite tv. I am quite a fortunate person to have been born when I was, to the parents I was, in the place I was. Somehow I walked across this beds of swine coals  and the only burn came from the fever.

So the last line of this blog is a link to a flu tracker by Dr Henry Niman of Rhiza Labs and of course, Google. Oddly it indicates a date of May... and if you enter the current months, it does not update. However the current date is on the chart, so someone's watching it. And another flu tracker I found showed much the same results for this year.  I know my country health department has issued alerts.

Morale of this story. Get your H1N1 shot if you haven't already.
And remember, you must be healthy before you get the shot.
Just follow the link below.
http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/