The Thursday Thoughts!
School Daze
The photo below depicts a corridor at Rickards High School in Tallahassee, the alma mater of the majority of my kin and friends that grew up with me on Tallahaseee's Southside. While I was somewhat pleased to observe quite a few masks, it is clear that everyone is not masked—and that social distancing surely is not being adhered to by students.
Cognizant that the Coronavirus is a real threat that will cause misery and death for many in the days ahead, while praying this morning that God protects all who labor and learn in our schools across America, I humbly offer the following Scripture, taken from Philippians 4:67, which reads thusly, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Amen...
Gov. Ron Desantis is being a real "Mask- Hole"
The State of Florida is at the epicenter of the latest Coronavirus outbreaks, but you can't tell it from the latest infantile words and toddler temper tantrum being thrown by Gov. Ron Desantis.
With Florida hospitals strained and ventilators in short supply, the wanna-be 2024 Republican presidential nominee thinks it wiser to reject overtures from the Biden administration to provide ventilators to the Sunshine State. What makes Desantis truly deplorable on this issue is that if a series of Category 5 hurricanes hit our peninsula, Desantis will accept federal aid the same as all of his predecessors. The fact that far more Florida residents have died from the Coronavirus than the last two decades’ worth of hurricanes combined shows how really feeble minded Mr. Desantis is—and how reckless he is playing with the lives of citizens in our state.
Desantis is not alone; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is similarly idiotic about the virus, as is Georgia's Brian Kemp. I cannot help but ask what will it take for these governors to make masks mandatory? I cannot help but wonder how many children have to be admitted to hospitals, and how many unvaccinated children have to be hauled off to morgues, before these "leaders" begin to place their political predilections aside to protect their people?
Stay tuned...
More GOP Hypocrisy
So, the U.S. Senate's resident medical doctor, Sen. Rand Paul, and his wife, Kelley, way back on February 26, 2020, bought stock in Gilead Sciences, a concern that makes an anti-viral drug that is used to treat patients suffering from Covid-19.
To jar your memory, in February of 2020, then President Donald Trump was telling the American people that there would be minimal loss of life from the Coronavirus. While we now know that Mr. Trump already knew the real looming dangers at that point, one can similarly conclude that other briefed federal officials, like Sen. Paul, knew what was coming and bet heavily on companies that would rake in profits for treatments, like Gilead.
What's worse is that Sen. Paul should have disclosed this investment within 45 days of the purchase—but it took him 16 whole months to confess. Such reminds, again, that far too many political figures play by a different set of rules from their constituents.
Biden administration and HBCU Covid responses
Kudos to President Joe Biden and Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick for leading efforts to ensure that America's HBCUs ensure that students, faculty, and staff take Covid-19 vaccinations.
As Blogger Jarrett Carter of HBCU Digest reports, "(Howard) will be part of an executive meeting this afternoon to discuss corporate strategies for vaccine mandates. Howard is one of several HBCUs and a growing number of colleges and universities to require faculty, staff, and students to show proof of vaccination, or be subject to stringent testing and distancing requirements upon their return to campus this fall, or possible termination."
Count me as one who has no qualms whatsoever at HBCUs—or any institution—requiring proof of vaccination. Such is why I shrug my shoulders at "conservatives" who claim that such directives are “invasions of privacy,” particularly when these same conservatives want folks to produce two and three forms of identification to vote. At every school that I ever attended, my parents or I had to produce my shot records for Measles, Mumps, and Rubella to start school; the same should apply for the Covid-19.
HBCU Football Season coming soon
I am so proud to see that my two HBCU alma maters, Morehouse College (B.A.) and Florida A&M University (M.A), are well underway in their improvements of B.T. Harvey Stadium in Atlanta, and legendary Bragg Memorial Stadium in Tallahassee. While I will be watching the Maroon Tigers and Rattlers play on my television sets or computer all year, I look forward to the day that I can return to crowded stadiums in my Maroon & White, and my Orange & Green!
Check it out:
Voting Rights
Speaking of voter identification, one of the biggest sub-lies of the collective "Big Lie" told by Republicans last year is that hundreds of thousands of deceased or ineligible voters voted last year. Republican dominated states spent the entire winter and spring creating laws to remedy their own lie—measures that many election experts conclude will hurt core Democratic constituencies (read-Black voters).
While the House of Representatives passed the "For the People Act" earlier this year to push back against these so-called reforms by ending gerrymandering setting up automatic voter registration, and providing two weeks of early voting, the Bill has languished in the Senate due to the Biden administration and Senate Democrats hesitancy to eliminate the filibuster to allow a simple majority passage.
What's worse is that as the summer recess sends senators back home, there's no real guarantee that the For the People Act will be taken up in time to go into effect before the 2022 election. This not only portends potential danger for Democrats during the mid-term elections, but it also points to one of my lingering problems with the Democratic Party on the federal level, which is its inability to throw caution to the wind and push through what Democrats want and what's in the best interest of Democrats without any regards for threats from Republicans.
Yes, I know that Republicans are threatening to stall all work in the future should the filibuster get ended, and I know that President Biden wants so desperately to push for bipartisan support for his agenda, but I remind that the Infraturcture Bill and Budget are on there way to final passage, so it would make all of the sense in the world to push through voter protection measures that will protect Democratic voters next year!
The problem as I see it is that if President Biden does not pound the table on voter rights, and if no measure is passed, failure on this crucial legislation would be akin to the failures of another Democratic president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who refused to back an anti-lynching law or Black civil rights during his tenure because he did not want to upset Southern Democrats who may have refused to support his New Deal if he backed Black civil rights.
Final word on Covid
I admonish my readers to be extra careful with these "mask-holes" as you go about your daily affairs. Some of the worst are being very hostile to folks who wear masks, and are pushing back against the very knowledgeable medical professionals who are working to spread knowledge about the Coronavirus.
I leave you today with an 11 minute clip of irate mask-holes threatening medical experts following a school board meeting in Franklin, Tennessee. I post this not to inspire fear, but to ensure that all within my reach are careful!
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point! Have a wonderful Thursday!
Rand Paul is vaccinated and his kids go to school that have a mask mandate. To hear that he’s cheating the system is the least surprising thing I’ve read today, but it is the most disgusting. Children will assuredly die w/out a mask mandate, but he’s OK with that because it scores him political points. So sick of them.
I needed that bit of scripture today. I am also stealing mask-holes.