CLEAN BLOOD 
> The day is over, you are driving home. You tune in your radio. You hear a 
> little blurb about a little village in India where some villagers have 
> died suddenly, 
> strangely, of a flu that has never been seen before. 
> It's not influenza, but three or four fellows are dead, and it's kind of 
> interesting. They're sending some doctors over there to investigate it. 
> You don't think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from church, you 
> hear another radio spot. Only they say it's not three villagers, it's 
> 30,000 
> villagers in the back hills of this particular area of India, and it's on 
> TV that night. CNN runs a little blurb; people are heading there from the 
> disease 
> center in Atlanta because this disease strain has never been seen before. 
> By Monday morning when you get up, it's the lead story. For it's not just 
> India; it's Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and before you know it, you're 
> hearing 
> this story everywhere and they have coined it now as "the mystery flu". 
> The President has made some comment that he and everyone are praying and 
> hoping that all will go well over there. But everyone is wondering, "How 
> are we 
> going to contain it?" 
> That's when the President of France makes an announcement that shocks 
> Europe. He is closing their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or 
> any of 
> the countries where this thing has been seen. 
> That night you are watching a little bit of CNN before going to bed. Your 
> jaw hits your chest when a weeping woman is translated from a French news 
> program 
> into English: "There's a man lying in a hospital in Paris dying of the 
> mystery flu." It has come to Europe. Panic strikes. 
> As best they can tell, once you get it, you have it for a week and you 
> don't know it. Then you have four days of unbelievable symptoms. 
> Then you die. Britain closes it's borders, but it's too late. South 
> Hampton, Liverpool, North Hampton, and it's Tuesday morning when the 
> President of the 
> United States makes the following announcement: 
> "Due to a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia 
> have been canceled. If your loved ones are overseas, I'm sorry. They 
> cannot 
> come back until we find a cure for this thing." 
> Within four days our nation has been plunged into an unbelievable fear. 
> People are selling little masks for your face. People are talking about 
> what if it comes to this country, and preachers on Tuesday are saying, 
> "It's the 
> scourge of God. 
> "It's Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting when somebody 
> runs in from the parking lot and says, "Turn on a radio, turn on a radio." 
> While 
> the church listens to a little transistor radio with a microphone stuck up 
> to it, the announcement is made," 
> Two women are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu." 
> Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country. 
> People are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. 
> Nothing is working. California, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts. 
> It's as though it's just sweeping in from the borders. Then, all of a 
> sudden the news comes out. The code has been broken. A cure can be found. 
> A vaccine 
> can be made. 
> It's going to take the blood of somebody who hasn't been infected, and so, 
> sure enough, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of 
> emergency 
> broadcasting, everyone is asked to do one simple thing: 
> "Go to your downtown hospital and have your blood type taken. That's all 
> we ask of you. When you hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood, 
> please make 
> your way quickly, quietly, and safely to the hospitals." 
> Sure enough, when you and your family get down there late on that Friday 
> night, there is a long line, and they've got nurses and doctors coming out 
> and 
> pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it. 
> Your wife and your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and 
> they say, "Wait here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can 
> be dismissed 
> and go home." 
> You stand around scared with your neighbors, wondering what in the world 
> is going on, and that this is the end of the world. 
> Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He's 
> yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! And your 
> son tugs 
> on your jacket and says, "Daddy, that's me." 
> Before you know it, they have grabbed your boy. "Wait a minute, hold it!" 
> And they say, "It's okay, his blood is clean. His blood is pure. We want 
> to 
> make sure he doesn't have the disease. We think he has got the right 
> type." 
> Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying and 
> hugging one another some are even laughing. It's the first time you have 
> seen anybody 
> laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and says, 
> "Thank you, sir. Your son's blood type is perfect. It's clean, it is pure, 
> and we can make the vaccine." 
> As the word begins to spread all across that parking lot full of folks, 
> people are screaming and praying and laughing and crying. 
> But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and your wife aside and says, 
> "May we see you for a moment? We didn't realize that the donor would be a 
> minor 
> and we need. . . we need you to sign a consent form." 
> You begin to sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be 
> taken is empty. 
> "H-h-h-how many pints?" And that is when the old doctor's smile fades and 
> he says, "We had no idea it would be a little child. 
> We weren't prepared. We need it all!" 
> "But but..." 
> "You don't understand. We are talking about the world here. Please sign. 
> We - we need it all, we need it all!" 
> "But can't you give him a transfusion?" "If we had clean blood we would. 
> Can you sign? Would you sign?" In numb silence you do. Then they say, 
> "Would 
> you like to have a moment with him before we begin?" 
> Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room where he sits on a 
> table saying, "Daddy? Mommy? What's going on?" Can you take his hands 
> and say, "Son, 
> your mommy and I love you, and we would never ever let anything happen to 
> you that didn't just have to be. Do you understand that?" 
> And when that old doctor comes back in and says, "I'm sorry, we've - we've 
> got to get started. People all over the world are dying." Can you leave? 
> Can 
> you walk out while he is saying, 
> "Dad? Mom? Dad? Why - why have you forsaken me?" 
> And then next week, when they have the ceremony to honor your son, and 
> some folks sleep through it, and some folks don't even come because they 
> go to the 
> lake, and some folks come with a pretentious smile and just pretend to 
> care. Would you want to jump up and say, "MY SON DIED! DON'T YOU CARE?" 
> Is that what God is saying? "MY SON DIED. DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I 
> CARE?" 
> "Father, seeing it from your eyes breaks our hearts. Maybe now we begin 
> to comprehend the great love you have for us. Amen " 
>