Poetic Justice

Is there such a thing as poetic justice?  I had not heard the phrase until I was a 22 year old G.I. in the crotch rot country of Vietnam back in “The Summer of 69.”  The words were spoken by our unit’s 1st Sergeant in reply to the Chaplin’s utterance of, “Those who live by the sword, shall die by the sword!”  Now that phrase I heard time and time again when I was a 6th grade altar boy back in the summer of ‘59.  There are probably other references of the day such as, “Put Your Foot In Your Mouth” and “What Goes Around Comes Around,” but the poetic justice thing is prime.  I started paying attention to certain folks who seemed ready, willing and able to turn themselves into a human cluster***k who ultimately find themselves in harm’s way.  In some cases, I feel slightly bad for them and in others, not at all.  Such is the case of a leading conspiracy theorist who thought Covid-19 was a hoax and died from the virus after hosting illegal house parties.  Yep, poetic justice in action!

Hans Kristian Gaarder, a 60 year old Norwegian resident living about 40 miles north of Oslo, tested positive for the virus after he died on April 6th.  Now when I look at a report that states the fact after the crime, then I wonder about other complications that were involved.  The article went on to say that he had been ill for several weeks, but supposedly kept it secret.  He wasn’t tested before he died, but tested positive afterward.  Sources have stated that he held 2 illegal house parties just prior to his demise and more than a dozen who had attended the festivities have now tested positive and have most likely passed it on.  You see now, this is what bugs me.  Hans Kristian Gaarder was, most likely, only known in the local area so there aren’t going to be any vibes in The Force whatsoever.  Not to be callous here, but why can’t something like this happen where the result will become more meaningful if said event took place at Mar-a-Lago or the Governor’s mansion in Florida, Georgia or Texas.  You know, someplace where the words poetic justice can be capitalized in quotation marks and in italics.  I really prefer something that sticks out and becomes a huge disturbance in The Force.  May Hans rest in peace, but he’s a poor example for poetic justice.  No one is going to notice and it will be like pissing in the ocean.  Let me fill you in as to how Hans blew it.  The first bad decision he made is that he decided to become a conspiracy theorist.  That is a huge, huge mistake.  I personally know quite a few of these characters and they’re big time fruit loops.  In the words of Gill Scott-Heron’s grandmother who said, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”  Now I’m the first one to admit that there has been a time or two when I myself was short changed in certain situations.  For instance, I thought I would grow up to be a fine upstanding citizen that everyone would look up to and I turned out to be a dubious derelict who is shorter than 98% of the world’s population.  The one thing that I did accomplish though is that at a young age, my folks taught me to make sure I engage my brain before putting my mouth in gear.  That has saved me time and time again.  Sorry to tell this to all you Hans out there, but there are 3,000,000 testaments that the virus is real.  On top of that, the world is round, the Eagle did land at Tranquility Base with “one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind,” there is no Easter Bunny, but I met some Playboy one’s back when, and yes, Elvis has left the building!  Thank you, thank you very much!  Stay tuned…..!