A Lack of Love...

NY Times, 9-25-21, data for Pender County

Every week we hear about someone who has gotten sick with Covid-19. People we know have been in the ICU for weeks and weeks. Some have died. It is heartbreaking. And part of what makes all this so tragic is that it does not need to be this way. 

Vaccines have been available since January – nine months, but just over half of the people in our county are fully vaccinated. The school board had required masks at the traditional start of the school year due to extraordinarily high rates of infection at the year-round school. But they voted to make masks optional starting October 4. One of the members said it was a matter of “freedom,” allowing families the right to choose what was best for them. 

I would rather be free of worrying about my mother getting sick. I would rather be free to go into a store where people were protecting others by wearing masks. I would rather be free to see friends again. We used to say that one person’s freedom ended where another’s nose began, but clearly a large minority of people in my county don’t practice that. 

And here is an irony: Many of those who refuse to wear masks and won’t get vaccinated profess to be Christian. Jesus said that one of the greatest commandments is to love your neighbor as yourself. But for many here, love of self, love of one’s own preferences and comfort, and love of personal privilege have overruled love of neighbor. It makes me sad. And it also makes me angry….