Mexico, The Flu, and Notre Dame

This was the only type of mask I hoped to see in Mexico. DOH!

The swine flu is impacting me personally now. Regarding our cruise next week, we received notice that our Cozumel port of call was canceled and Royal Caribbean has a moratorium on all Mexican ports. Indefinitely. We're bummed, as we had booked places at an exclusive beach club that had been touted as a Corona commercial. But hey, I can understand why RC made this choice. In fact, since the CDC elevated the pandemic threat again, I'm almost afraid that the whole cruise may be canceled. Illness spreads so fast on cruise ships; one case of piggy flu would take the whole ship down.

Speaking of the piggy flu, the news reports one confirmed case of the flu at Notre Dame. The town's been awash with massive Obama drama (or Odrama, as I've started calling it). On one hand, I see why people are up-in-arms about a Catholic institution granting an honorary doctorate to someone whose policymaking is decidedly and unabashedly un-Catholic. Yet, the media storm is quite annoying and has escalated this issue far beyond what it needed to be. Just last night, I heard a small prop plane circling the city for hours. Behind it, a banner illustrating a crushed 10-week old fetus with nothing but a tiny hand remaining. It's the same image that people are waving on their sandwich boards at the entrance to campus. I'm not here to discuss my personal issues and faith views regarding abortion or any moral/ethical issue encountered in life. However, these individuals are quite "in your face" about this issue and their legalistic, stern, and unforgiving views are contrary to Jesus' loving of the tax collectors and sinners. I don't think it's admissible to pass moral judgment on anyone, particularly via extremely grotesque media.

But again, all opinions aside. Because this commencement has grown into such a media firestorm, here's what I think will happen. There was one case of piggy flu diagnosed at ND. Most ND students live in close quarters. What if they had a small epidemic on their hands and had to cancel commencement for matters of public safety? Instead of one side "winning," the whole event would be canceled on account of flu. Wouldn't that be the neat and tidy ending to the story? That's how I'll know God has a sense of humor!

In regard to the upcoming cruise, my travel mates and I are considering a contingency plan, in case the cruise does get canceled and we're stuck 'bumming around' Florida for a week. This never happens to us (besides hurricane Francis leveling our hotel in the Bahamas in 2004 and me getting hospital-sick during the inlaws' wedding weekend in the Orcas Islands). So no, we don’t have travel insurance. We like to live on the edge that way. Although, I may begin rethinking my lackadaisical attitude towards travel catastrophes!