NaPoMo NZ Day 5 - Historical figure

[Todd]

Todd - Sorry, but I'm missing a vital connection here. I remember polio, an epidemic that hit kids around me. That seems to be on the Korean War's (or peace-keeping mission's) timeline, but I can't connect Murdock, or the 54,000/three million. NZ lost around 60 troops in the Korean altercation? You've stumped me, and I gave you the links. Damn.

No fault of yours, Mercedes. My first drafts can be oddly connected and cryptic. This one may get worked on in some sense later after it's sat for awhile. It isn't anywhere near where it would need to be yet.

Here's how I got there.

1. Murdoch made inventions that shot people or animals (homemade gun, hypos, tranq gun).
2. Hypos were in demand for the Korean war for blood transfusions.
3. Researched the history of hypos and their misuse. 1.8M deaths a year--every 20 seconds
4. Compared those deaths to a war. US Loses/converted to needle deaths, All loses converted to needle deaths
5. Got into the other issues around needle reuse issues
6. Walked away thinking Murdoch created something important, but he didn't enforce his patents. Like Volvo and the harness seatbelt, he simply wanted others to benefit from his invention. Admirably, he didn't want to get rich from it. This however led to companies not doing or suppressing basic innovations for profit--resulting in deaths and disease spreading that ironically this invention was meant to prevent.

The poem comes nowhere close to capturing this but it was the best I could do to keep up with the prompts and stay on track.

Best,

Todd