I have a friend who is an unabashed Trump supporter. When I asked him what he thought of Trump’s State of the Union address, he told me that he didn’t need to watch the SOTU and that he rarely watches Trump’s speeches. My friend told me that although he doesn’t care for Trump’s personality and delivery, my buddy believes in MAGA and the America First message. As he puts it, Trump is the first president in his lifetime to really put this country before wokeness, politics and greed. He supports the President unconditionally.

I have another dear friend who is convinced that my 2024 leukemia diagnosis was the direct result of the Moderna Coronavirus vaccine that I was required to take. In 2021, educators were required to get Covid shots in order to continue working with children. The shot did make me feel lousy for a couple of days but I have never tested positive for COVID.

A former co-worker is convinced that the recent sudden deaths of a few of the people that we once worked with were caused by what they call the “clot shot”. This former colleague cited the deaths of people we know as well as reports on the internet of hundreds of European soccer players succumbing to Sudden Cardiac Death since receiving the Covid shots.

I have a neighbor who is vehemently opposed to the Save Our Reservoir movement. She is quite outspoken in her opposition to SOR. She has called me and members of SOR childish. My neighbor told me that she has been attending village board meetings to keep an eye on us and to support the mayor and members of the village board.

A few weeks ago I gave my proximate critic a copy of the memo that former Village Administrator James Sedota presented to the mayor and at least one trustee before his untimely death. The calculations in Sedota’s memo show that over a 30-year period, it will be $52 million more expensive for Fredonia to join the North County Water District than to upgrade the dam, water treatment plant and reservoir. When I saw my down the street friend at a recent village board meeting, I asked her if she had read Sedota’s work and if she had any comments or questions about it. My neighbor said, “I didn’t read that. I threw it in the trash.” She proudly stated she threw Sedota’s memo in the trash without even looking at it.

All four of the individuals described are well educated. They have college degrees and/or advanced college degrees.

You would think that I should be able to have a friendly and spirited debate with all of them. But I have learned to tread lightly with some of my friends, lest people I care about stop talking to me. Mostly I just gently ask pointed questions, fact check and point out inconsistencies in some of these beliefs.

Friend number one asked me why I even watched the SOTU and why I watch Trump’s press conferences and speeches when I can’t stand the president. I told him that I can’t make an intelligent argument against Trump’s policies unless I force myself to sit through Trump’s blathering. I watch a myriad of different news sources from far left liberal to far right MAGA. If I am going to comment on politics, I am going to make well informed comments or I’m not going to speak at all. I asked friend number one how he could be so sure that he supports Trump when he doesn’t even listen to what he says?

I told friend number two that people were being diagnosed with leukemia and dying from the blood cancer long before the Covid vaccine was required and now recommended. When I suggested a fact check to see if there was any data to indicate a spike in leukemia diagnoses since COVID, they mentioned the great “COVID cover up”.

Individual number three was even more challenging to discuss their views with. When I asked about NFL football players all being required to get the “clot shot,” they told me that they knew for a fact that many players of the pigskin pretended to take the Covid shot when they were actually getting saline shots. Fact checking this claim and the claim that hundreds of soccer players are dying on the pitches in Europe because of the “clot shot” was also said to be part of the “cover up”.

About the only thing that made a dent in number three’s opinion was when I told them that I had been given two COVID shots since leukemia with no ill effects. I questioned the Roswell doctor who recommended that I get the shots. She put it this way. “Andrew, we have spent more than $2 million keeping you alive. Do you really think that I am going to recommend that you get a vaccine that might kill you?”

I do understand why some of my friends believe as they do. Being lied to by the government and the media for decades makes people susceptible to propaganda and conspiracy theories. It’s hard to get individuals who proudly state, as The Who once did, that they “won’t get fooled again” to admit that they actually have been.

I don’t know what to write about my neighbor. How do you get anything across to a person who refuses to even consider an alternate view? Neighbor called people speaking up at village board meetings childish and suggested that we be treated like the unruly children that she managed so well in her classroom when she was a teacher. I wonder how my neighbor, the teacher, would have handled a childish student who threw an assignment that they were given into the trash without even looking at it?

Andrew Ludwig is a retired math teacher and a retired public school and Catholic school administrator. He currently works as a substitute teacher in Chautauqua County.