You Are Right Too

Can Two Opposite Opinions Both Be Right?

You Are Right Too

There is a classic Jewish joke. Two neighbors were fighting over a financial dispute. They could not reach an agreement, so they took their case to the local rabbi. The rabbi heard the first litigant’s case, nodded his head, and said, “You’re right.”

The second litigant then stated his case. The rabbi heard him out, nodded again and said, “You’re also right.”

The rabbi’s attendant, who had been standing by this whole time, was justifiably confused. “But Rebbe,” he asked, “how can they both be right?”

The rabbi thought about this for a moment before responding, “You’re right, too!”

This classic came to me rather loudly the other day when I heard about the outrage that some in Florida had, regarding northern Americans and OMG, Canadians were eligible for Covid shots immediately. How is that right?

On the surface it would seem outrageous. Some of us have developed trigger fingers for dialing in so many times to get an appointment. I am sure someone by now has thrown a brick through their computer for trying for hours to get into a website and failing to get an appointment and some non-Floridian, or worse some foreigner from Canada manages to get through and get “his /her spot”.

(By the way there is no truth to the rumor that playing hockey from infancy makes you a better dialer. I know. If it was true, I would have had my shot on day 1 instead of racking up over 400 calls in one hour)

Nevertheless, there really is another side to this discussion.

Why do we get immunized?

Obviously, it is to stop us from catching the disease or if we get it, suffering a much milder infection since the current vaccines are not perfect.

The other reason we take it is to reach herd immunity. We may still be able to transmit it even after we are inoculated. If everyone in Florida was vaccinated the disease would die. It cannot live for long outside a host body. When everyone is protected the disease dies out for lack of a host to live in. If we have Canadians or New Yorkers, (an invasive group held in greater contempt then Canadians), who are not vaccinated they remain the host and spreaders of the disease. Every child who cannot yet take the needle, every immune compromised person who cannot take the vaccine, everyone allergic to the vaccine who cannot take it, is only safe when the virus cannot live in our community i.e. herd immunity. I understand saying to Canadians, “don’t come down this winter” or “all northerners stay away”, and when what is left of tourism and hospitality take their dying breath, we can be happy that at least they did not get our needles. (I am not addressing the case of people flying into Florida from anywhere outside the state to get the needle and then going home. That I think is reprehensible.)

On the other hand, lest we get too high and mighty, do you remember when Governor DeSantis said he was arranging to get drugs through Canada at a much lower price? No one asked questions about the supply lines and the impact importing drugs would have on Canada. The fact that the Canadian government negotiated good deals for Canada was probably based on the fact that Canada has a small population with a national health plan that could negotiate good deals as one big block, and not with many competitors bidding up the price as we saw with PPE, might have had something to do with lower prices for Canada.

In the end as with many DeSantis ideas the deal fell through because Canada did not have enough drugs for itself and its giant neighbor to the south. If Florida could have gotten the drugs, we would have taken them in a heartbeat without any care for the damage we were doing to their system, and I get it. We all want what is best for us and take it if we can get it.

Floridians who don’t want outsiders to get our shots, you are right, and Canadian and northern American snowbirds you are right too.

Often in this complicated and global economy we have these conflicting issues and there are no easy answers.

For 4 years we had a president who fanned the flames of these tensions especially with China, but as we learned, big boys cannot push other big boys around anymore, because our economies are intertwined. Trump played hard ball with China and imposed sanctions that meant that our famers were in trouble, and consumers paid more, and China was not exactly crushed.

Here is another example of the same dilemma. In some states, prisoners are getting a higher priority for early shots than most other citizens in those states. On the surface I can see why people are outraged.

“You robbed a bank and were sent away for 10 years and the government is letting you jump the line while my elderly 80-year-old parents who never broke a law in their life and lived an upstanding and moral life all their days will have to wait a month that they may not survive to get the vaccine they need today”.

It is hard to argue with that but obviously there is an argument. These prisoners are wards of the state. While they committed a crime, they did not commit a capital crime. Prisons are a petri dish for the virus. The transmission rate of the infection may be 5 times greater if not more than the regular population. Do we not have a moral obligation to protect them?

It is also true that we put all those who work in the prison at much higher risk. Do we empty the jails? That will spawn a whole new series of problems. You would then be able to die from an attack by a released junkie and not from Covid.

We live in an interconnected world where disparate parts of our country or different countries must recognize that they are all connected. This is not always bad. It maybe lifesaving.

After the despicable events of January 6 people are concerned if our country is safe anymore or if it is the place to raise their families? Jews who hear echoes of the German mob that led to the Holocaust are asking themselves if this country will remain safe for them.

Requests from Americans for immigration to Canada (another reason to be nice to our winter guests) is skyrocketing. In 2015 through Canada’s Express Entry 600 US residents immigrated to Canada. In 2019 it was over 10,000 and has grown significantly since.

My point is that there are many correct answers to very difficult questions in a global world that has made relationships between countries more difficult than ever. We need to figure out problems with respectful dialogue and agreed upon facts to try to make the best solution that will surely not please everyone.

A story is told that when the Socialist Allende took power in Chile, two boats crossed each other in the Atlantic Ocean. The one coming to Chile came from Israel filled with left wing Chilean Jews who were now returning to Chile after fleeing to Israel when the right wingers took over. The other boat going to Israel was filled with right wing Chilean Jews fleeing the new Socialist government. As the two boats crossed close enough so that the people on both ships could hear each other they both yelled, “Meshuganeh go back”.

You are right and you are right.

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