Allan J. McDonald died March 6. He could have been a hero. As an engineer on the Challenger shuttle project he pleaded with management to delay the launch until the weather warmed and fuel cell seals would remain intact.

Management ignored him and seven astronauts perished. Many of us saw it live on TV.

Alan Keyes was a presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. I shared many of his opinions. I heard him speak at Pork Expo in Des Moines where he declared that farmers should get off the dole. There were five of us who applauded. Every group has their dependence on the state that incentivizes them to deny the negative effects of central planning.

We went to hear Keyes speak at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC). He had me nodding in agreement. Then the question was asked, “What do you think of the space program?” He was in love with the space program. All this clinging to constitutional principle was tossed out the window in one sentence. He wanted farmers off the dole but not the aerospace industry. Farmers produce food. The space program produced space blankets and celebrity appearances. I do know someone who thinks there would be no internet without the space program.

I hear cries to heed the experts, especially during this time of no colds or flu. McDonald was an expert. What about him? What about experts who point out proven therapies for Covid and never get a public voice. A large study in Africa found, weirdly, that ivermectin, a treatment for parasites, cured Covid. There’s plenty of evidence vitamin D helps us fight Covid. By the way, dark skin inhibits absorption of vitamin D, explaining a disparity based on race in severity of the condition. The media has eagerly blamed such a disparity on systemic racism.

After the drugs Thalidomide and DES were found to produce dire side effects, they were avoided, even for a cattle feed supplement where it was in feed and not contacting humans like it was as a human drug. We heeded theses warnings by experts at the Food and Drug Administration. Now I hear people proclaim they’ve had a Covid shot as if they just learned to ride a bike. Really. After all these years of waiting for rigorous FDA testing for life saving drugs, we are proud to get an unapproved vaccine from a company that has legal immunity for any bad effects?

We might look back some day and ask why. Why this violation of long standing dependence on FDA approval for drugs that could save a loved one, and then dropping the whole protocol in the case of a virus that kills one tenth of one percent of the population.

The CDC reports only 1,900 deaths from the vaccines so far. I guess that would be like the people at the birthday party that was bombed by Obama to get one terrorist. Or the crew of the Challenger who was deemed expendable in the cause of whatever.

Amazon created 500,000 new jobs during the last year. That makes me think of the USDA’s report that found soybean acreage increased by 5%. It comes from somewhere. Your stimulus check comes from somewhere. There are 500,000 fewer people working in their own business or another normally essential business. These are businesses like the taco stand that was burned last summer in Minneapolis.

Blame for these changes can’t go on Allan McDonald’s boss or Anthony Fauci. They have to go on the deviation from the plan. The plan that says individuals are more important than government. Shooting rockets into the air at the expense of a pair of shoes for a kid who never agreed to the deal is wrong. Pushing untested gene altering drugs at the expense of future unknown health effects is wrong. And to see a broad section of society mind-numbingly plodding along with it is disturbing.