INTRODUCTION: PARIAH or FAMINE -- HARSHEST OF REALITIES
The first post is an Introduction-- I am the son of European immigrants. I count myself as lucky to reside in the USA because life could be far worse. Plagues (or pandemics) seemingly occur one time per century. A prior plague (or pandemic, if you will) was the Great Flu of 1917-1921. That pandemic occurred after WWI -- it is judged to be a result of poorly sanitized, rotting corpses, or the poisoned flesh from the Great War. No one (at that time) knew what potential harm would follow as decomposing tissue was subject to earthen microbes in the place of routine burials. [The Great Flu wiped so many souls from earthly life, my suspicious nature started to ponder if occurrences like this happened because (we humans) can't stand the sight of other more affluent souls.] While my father 'weathered the storm' more than 100 years ago, his mother (my fraternal grandmother) lived barely past the era. She succumbed to complications from the pandemic and abject povert...