When I was a kid, vaccinations were simply part of my growing up. I remember getting the polio vaccine on a sugar cube and getting the smallpox “shot” and the distinctive scar it produced.

When my father was stationed on Okinawa, we left the United States through Travis Air Force Base in California There is a waiting area was a mural depicting a map of much the world. Associated with each country was a list of inoculations one had to have.

That made an impression on me as a sixth grader. I remember standing in a line in which nurses gave me injections in both arms for the sake of efficiency.

The news that we have a measles outbreak is distressing to say the least. Measles, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), had been eradicated from this country because of a comprehensive vaccination program.

According to the CDC website there were 372 cases of measles in 2018. We’re not up to the level of 2014 when there were 667 cases of measles. As of Feb. 14, there have been 127 cases.

In many cases the outbreaks have come about through populations that do not have their children inoculated. The CDC reported this has happened to Amish communities as well as Orthodox Jewish ones.

It also has occurred within families that have believed vaccinations are linked to autism and other health concerns. Three of the 2018 outbreaks took place in New York and New Jersey.

With publicity of the outbreaks there has been an increase in vaccinations, news report have indicated.

All of this seems to me to be something out of a bleak science fiction film. We know vaccinations work. They were a required part of the experience we Baby Boomers share.

With the rise of other health conditions, though, some people have believed that vaccinations were actually hurting children.

All of this contributes to my growing belief that we are not moving forward, but instead sliding backwards.

Think for a moment. In many aspects of American life, can we say things are really getting better? And why aren’t they?

We’ve gone from a country where inoculations were seen as a way to prevent disease to a country where people view them as optional.

We are still a country where racism and prejudice is still an on-going issue.

Some of us are worried about gun violence, while others justify how the latest mass shooting is simply the price we have to pay for having guns readily available to many. Deaths of innocent people result in expressions of “thoughts and prayers,” but at the same times screeds that call for greater protection of gun rights.

We like to pride ourselves about economic opportunity and yet look at the burden of student debt and how it will affect the way of life here. How can people become homeowners when they are already struggling to pay a loan the size of a mortgage?

I just watched a science fiction film this weekend – my review is on the Dining & Entertainment page. It occurred to me that many visions of the future are not the gleaming utopia of something such as “Star Trek.”

Instead the future is harsh, dirty and lawless, with a small percentage of the population living in a technological splendor. The rest of us are going through their trash.

With everything that is either not happening or is a reversal, I’m wondering if the not-so-wonderful image of the future is the one to which we’re heading.