The heroes aren't out holding signs

Someday, maybe, people won’t have to pick sides.

But that day isn’t here yet, as Saturday’s protest outside Kootenai Health reminds.

It’s been almost two years since COVID-19 arrived. Protesters might claim and actually believe that it’s a fairly harmless ailment that afflicts only a tiny sliver of the population, but in its wake, the virus has left more than 5.25 million dead. Most of us have lost dear ones to this killer.

While the pain of loss remains acute, it seems COVID-19's staying power has worn down most people. They're weary of masks and social distancing, of scrubbing their hands 214 times a day and pushing doors open with their elbows.

No matter political or religious backgrounds, nearly everyone struggles with the lingering changes in daily life created by the virus, whether that be labor shortages in all service sectors, supply chain disruptions, travel restrictions or other annoying inconveniences.

But targeting our medical facilities for doing their utmost to protect their patients and employees is just wrong. These are demonstrations of ignorance, not enlightenment. They demean the very people who, for nearly two years now, have been risking their lives every day at work. And here’s where the irony goes from strange to sick.

Many of the people who are demonstrating represent the central reason the virus is still wreaking havoc. Had they and those who believe as they do simply rolled up their sleeves in a small sacrifice to their fellow man and gotten vaccinated, hospitals would not be pushed into the corner of mandating what should have been accomplished willingly.

Sick and injured people go to hospitals. They are the definition of a vulnerable population. Well, guess who’s most susceptible to COVID-19’s most vicious assaults? If you said hospital patients, you’re smarter than the average demonstrator.

So here we are, all of us, in the horrible position of having to pick sides. Saturday’s anti-KH, anti-vaccine, anti-mandate collective has chosen theirs. And we choose ours:

Each and every one of you who serves your community through tireless and sometimes thankless work at Kootenai Health, we can never thank you enough. You deserve far better than the distrust and disrespect aimed at you Saturday.