NOTES,  13 AUGUST 2021

Greetings reader, on Friday, August 13, 2021. This is a convenient moment to check in on the crises in our lives we have been following for a long time. So, how do we stand now?

PANDEMIC. Our early summer of joy is turning into our late summer of trauma. The plague is rapidly worsening, particularly in our southern states. We are now in the third great surge of the pandemic. Moreover, this spike is on track to be the worst of all. Find the chart for South Carolina here . In the last 14 days, SC has seen +123% in cases, +161% in hospitalizations, and +186% in deaths. According to the chart, this third spike is rising faster than either of the earlier two. The future looks grim. 

Alabama's chart looks even worse. Find it here . There, cases are up 65%, hospitalizations 112%, and deaths 213%. Hospitals all over the state are overflowing with covid patients, even children (some in ICU on ventilators). According to the graph, within the next two weeks, AL will be in the midst of its worse surge of the plague bypassing the horror of last January. It is a nightmare.

As everyone knows, this new phase is the pandemic of the unvaccinated. However, children under 12 cannot be vaccinated. In our southern states, vaccine hesitancy is becoming vaccine hostility. In the United States as a whole, 50.4% of the population is now fully vaccinated. In SC, it is 41.4%. AL is in the very last place, still, at just 35.1%. 

In trying to understand this vaccine hostility, I have studied the map of vaccination rates among the Alabama counties. In the first place, contrary to common belief, rates are not based on race. The counties across the Black Belt (named for soil not people, but inhabited mostly by African Americans) have relatively high vaccination rates. In fact, there is a direct correlation of vaccinations and voting. The "redder" the county, the lower the vaccination rate. This shows that the pandemic is seen by many people in AL as a political rather than a health issue. The most conservative Republicans are the most resistant to vaccines and masks. This is a shame and disgrace; and Alabama is paying a terrible price for this collective lunacy.

SCHISM IN SC. Nothing new. Still waiting on the SC Supreme Court to make a decision on the Episcopal Church's appeal of Judge Dickson 2020 order. I doubt that we hear anything from the SCSC before the end of summer.

THE ADVENT. Happy to report that the clergy and Staff of the Episcopal Cathedral of the Advent, in Birmingham AL, are continuing to work on implementing the Covenant recently signed by the vestry and the bishop of Alabama, Glenda Curry. As one small but important symbolic gesture of healing, the Episcopal Church flag has returned to the front doors. It has been gone so long, no one can remember how long. The previous deans had tried their best to remove names, signs, and symbols of the Episcopal Church (from the Episcopal cathedral).

My thanks to the thoughtful correspondent who made this photo and shared it with me. 

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A couple of other happy notes for the day. 

Today is International Lefthanders Day. Happy ILD to my daughter Elizabeth and all the other lefties out there. Today is your day. I must hasten to say you are in very good company indeed. Many of the greatest geniuses of history were lefthanders:   Napoleon Bonaparte, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Aristotle, Mozart, Julius Caesar, Marie Curie. Closer to home, how about Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the greatest Alabamian of all time, Helen Keller.

On another happy note, tomorrow, my wife Sandy and I celebrate our fifty-fifth wedding anniversary. We were married on August 14, 1966, at the Chapel of the Resurrection, Ruge Hall, in Tallahassee. Although we had been born and brought up in Pensacola and our families were well-connected there, we wanted to marry in our new church home. As students at FSU, both of us had been confirmed in the Episcopal Church at Ruge. So, fortunately for us, lots of family and friends made the drive over to Tallahassee for the day. We were exceedingly honored and grateful that they joined us in celebrating our special day. The Rev. Lex Matthews, chaplain, was the officiant. (After the wedding we drove, that day, to Orlando where I was to start a job teaching at a junior college.)

Ruge Hall stands across the street from the old campus of Florida State University. This building was constructed in 1931 as the Episcopal student center. Behind it, out of sight in this picture, is the Chapel. It was built in the 1950's in moderne/minimalist style.

So, we are remembering fifty-five years. There is a lot to be said for long-term relationships. Through thick and thin, we would not have wanted it any other way.

So, life goes on and we go with it. We are still in a dark night of crisis on crisis. No one knows where all of this is going. I have always believed it best we did not know the future. However perilous the seas around us now, we are all in this ship together. No one is alone. Peace.