Are we safer now?

I would think that the whole world knows by now that WSU football coach Nick Rolovich was fired because of the Washington state governor’s mandate that all state employees would be vaccinated. Rolovich was hoping to get a religious exemption for not getting the jab. He was denied and around 5:00 on October 18th Coach Rolo was escorted from the campus by a State Patrol officer. He was not allowed to speak to the team or go back into his office. “Thanks Coach, don’t let the door hit you on the butt on the way out!”

Interestingly enough the Cougars were on a three game winning streak and had been playing very well. Rolovich has been the only coach that I have seen this year that was always masked up and never was seen sneezing or pulling down his mask to communicate or even rub his face. You can’t say that about other coaches that have roamed the sidelines at any Cougar game home or away not even the new interim Cougar coach.

I’m not sure when or why Coach Rolo became this person that was so disliked by the sports media in Spokane but the newspaper there seems to have made Coach Rolo public enemy number 1. Even the rioters that destroyed businesses and police precincts in Seattle were treated better than the Cougar head coach. Well, at least, they have convicted him of not getting a shot which of course makes him guilty of possibly becoming a super spreader by being on the sidelines in the great outdoors.

WSU and the state of Washington convicted him of denying a vaccine that he doesn’t trust. They fired him from the thing that he loves most mentoring young men on the football field. There was no fine but when you give up $3 million dollars it might just be one.

The media says that this shows poor leadership on his part. Really? He told his team that he has made a decision to not get the vaccine and was hoping the school that hired him would understand. Coaches that buckle under pressure would certainly make young men wonder if it was about money or their beliefs. Oh, sure, the media would point out that he is suing WSU. True, but I think it would be good to know who made this decision and why. How many people were involved and were all of those on this decision making board vaccinated? Do any of them have concerns about the mandates? I think we all should be.

Why is this state one of the strictest in the nation when it comes to the rules of vaccines? This state has lost State Patrolmen, firefighters, EMTs and hospital workers because of these vaccine mandates. Is the governor still getting State Patrol protection? I know he is but honestly are our state highways going to be safer? On Saturday I didn’t see a single State Patrolman on my way to Cheney and back. There might have been some but I didn’t see any. Drivers didn’t seem to care and were driving like they were an hour late for a wedding but on their way to their own funeral.

I think that it is interesting that politicians say that we need to get the vaccine using the old saying, “If it saves only one life it is worth it.” So we try to save one life but we may lose hundreds, maybe thousands because first responders will be short-handed at accident scenes or fires or in emergency rooms but that’s the price to be paid so that we are safe around others.

Another thing that hasn’t been taken into consideration is the fact so many of these first responders have ten to 20 plus years on the job and now they are out. Who is going to train the new replacements? Doesn’t seem to matter now does it.

Come December federal employees will be let go as well, even those that are still working from home. Having power seems to be a lot more important than an individual’s rights.

Now I know that a fair amount of you won’t agree with me and that is part of this thing called free speech. We all have opinions and we should think about why we believe a certain way. Agree or disagree what is going on right now is a bit scary and losing good first responders is not the same as losing a coach. But they lost their job for the same reason. Are we safer now because of it?