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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is too young to have witnessed or feared the true horror of polio. I’m a few years older than Kennedy and I remember all the kids in my neighborhood who were in wheelchairs or who could only limp after us in their awkward leg braces.
He is definitely too young to remember the real fear we had as kids wondering if we might wake up unable to breathe, get out of our beds and maybe only survive after months in a claustrophobic iron lung.
I continued to witness the effects of polio throughout my life, working with friends and colleagues who have spent a lifetime living with its crippling effects.
If Kennedy releases polio from its cage again, we all may have to battle a vaccine-resistant disease. Donald Trump better seriously worry about the eternal legacy history would surely bestow upon him.
Sam Gillie
Hawaii Kai
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