Cutting in line

I have been haunted by the image of a smirking Mike Pence as he received a dose of the precious COVID-19 vaccination recently. I have wondered what essential role the soon-to-be ex-Vice President holds that pushed him to the front of the line.

Certainly, it isn't his role as VP, an office John Adams once described as "the most insignificant Office that ever the invention of Man contrived or his imagination conceived," rendered even more irrelevant by his lame duck status.

Is it because of his "essential" role as the head of the infamous, impotent pandemic task force that smiled through the tragedy of American deaths and which he proclaimed "largely behind us" in May?

Maybe he received the vaccination in an effort to convince others that it is safe. Unfortunately, 12 months of supporting a president who called it a hoax and a minor irritation cannot be undone by a five-minute photo op.

Many people will not take the vaccine based on what the president and his sycophants have been saying and Pence has always been at the head of that line.

Maybe the vice president has an underlying condition which has never been disclosed. He certainly does not meet the CDC guidelines for age that might have moved him up the list.

All I can see that has put Pence in this privileged position is his blind loyalty to and participation in an administration that is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans and, even as they are leaving office, has still not put together a plan for combating the spread of this deadly plague.

The fact that he used his privilege to cut in line in front of medical personnel, first responders and educators is disgusting, but not surprising for a group of deplorables that have done so much to damage American prestige, morality and hope. I know these people have no shame, but this act symbolizes everything that they have put us through over the last four years. January 20 can't come soon enough. Good riddance.

Robert Lupo

Palatine