This post covers the following four categories:
– Corona Virus
– Climate
– Sports
– Potpourri

Corona Virus
So, we think we are in charge,
Nah, nature is always ahead of us
Let’s be a bit humble and deferential
Let’s give due respect to the virus

We thought with vaccines, by Fall 2021
we will be done with Covid-19
We “forgot” only the virus sets the
timetable, due to mutations umpteen

Vaccine resistance here at home,
vaccine drought in rest of the world
Corona virus mutated – Delta, Omicron
We dickered while virus freely whirled

It is sad to let 800,000+ Americans die
of Corona virus due to mis-actions,
misbehaviors, political opportunism
and other anti-public health distractions

It would have been hard to fathom
at the beginning of the year that
more people will die of the virus
in 2021 than in 2020; Oh drat!

Sudden appearance of Omicron upended plans
to bring normalcy to pandemic ravaged lives
While disappointing, but unsurprising that viruses
Mutate; this is how their species thrives

Climate
IPCC issued another climate report
Rating the threat level as “code red”
It is hard to be optimistic; change is hard
Required actions, no one to spearhead

We have known our planet is warming
We have also known what is causing it
So, what’s new in the latest IPCC report?
– It is the most direct and explicit

Where we are today is no surprise
IPCC predicted it 30 years ago
The reason – carbon intensive habits
none of us wants to forgo

Sports
One of the great hypocrisies of American society
is the treatment of so-called Student athletes
While colleges reap billions from their labor,
Athletes only get scraps not fancy treats

California put college association on notice –
Allow athletes to profit from their labor & skill
Supreme Court drove the final nail
ruling athletes can profit off their NIL*
(*Name, Image and Likeness)

Simone Biles & Naomi Osaka courageously
admitted to suffering from mental stress
Pressure of having to win at every opportunity
accumulating over years, finally lead to distress

In refusing to participate at all costs
They displayed that they are humans
While they perform at superhuman level
Still, they are humans not automatons

Potpourri
Due to Corona Virus pandemic carnage,
drug overdose deaths moved to back pages
More than 100,000 Americans died in 2021
It being an “old news”, not much anger rages

The stage is being set by the red states
to actually steal elections going forward
State election machinery moving under
politicians’ control – sadly a step backward

Racial and culture wars moved to
School Board meetings, full of rancor
about teaching of Critical Race Theory
topic where Blacks and Whites can’t concur

You say why?
Easy, majority Whites can’t handle the truth
You want to teach the Truth? heavens not
“We say we like the history we wrote &
we insist that’s the way it is to be taught”

UFOs got a new name – UAPs
UFOs by another name are still UFOs
Feds admitted they can’t explain many
sightings; there origin?  who knows!