Oh please, enlighten me

So I should consider it okay

if it’s my Mom, age 88,

blind from strokes, confined to a care facility

and, wait for it,

giddy with the joy of new found love.

Or my wife, a cancer survivor,

who looks too young to be in any high-risk population.

Or our son who was born premature and

has been fighting the odds each new day.

Or one of my grandkids, (Who would dare to

tell me that any of my grandkids are merely fodder

so we can save our precious economy?)

Oh, and add to the list life-long friends,

co-workers, neighbors and acquaintances.

And you want me to believe

their death is acceptable because:

as Americans our rights are sacred and demand risks,

or they probably have some

weakening condition and would soon die,

or it is just their time,

or (please spare me)

god called them home

(or to a better place,

or fill in the vapid cliché of your choice).

That’s all I have.

But I’m sure you have more.

So, please enlighten me as to  

why I should gratefully fight for and

enjoy my rights and privileges

even at the cost of the life

of one of these, so dear to me?