Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 9-3-21

Editorial/Column
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Will History Say We Committed Suicide?
hat will historians
say about Black Americans and our response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Will they say Blacks nearly disappeared from the earth because of Depopulation? Genocide? Suicide? Or Mur- der. I know they will say that 15% of all COVID deaths were Black and that Blacks died 1.4 times more than the white population, and 74,000 Blacks died in 18
months.
I know at least nine fam-
ily members, friends and ex- tended family members who have died with COVID-19 over the past eight months, and I want to urge you to get vaccinated and to wear a mask. If you haven’t been vaccinated or are not wearing masks, I urge you to get up right now and go get masks and go get vaccinated in memory of every COVID vic- tim who would have gotten vaccinated, if they had a chance to do so before they got sick.
The loved ones we lost ei- ther were too young to get the vaccine when it was first issued, didn’t get a chance to get vaccinated before they
got sick or died, or were con- taminated during the course of them performing their jobs. Every time one of them died, it was like a punch in the gut.
If you could visit a COVID patient, you would run to the nearest site where COVID vaccinations are being given. Those who manage to sur- vive COVID usually want to convince everyone to get vac- cinated. The toll that COVID wreaks on the body (if you live)....lungs that don’t ab- sorb oxygen, kidneys and liver that stop working, blood clots that can attack your lungs and heart and other or- gans, attempts to breath that give you hardly enough oxy- gen to keep you and your or- gans alive, a tiredness you’ve never felt before, loss of ap- petite, headaches, and months of never feeling like yourself again.
Will historians say we en- dured all of this because a vaccine people prayed for was developed too fast? Will they say that we used the syphilis project and other racist studies as reasons not to take a vaccine that every- one was taking?
Or, will they say Blacks thought they would die from the vaccine when less than 4 verified people had reactions or died among 339 million vaccine doses given to 187.2 million people.
We hope they won’t say that we ignored getting vac- cinated because too many of us believed COVID-19 was a hoax. Or, will they say too many of us didn’t get the vac- cine because we heard horror stories from people who got the vaccine and who were overshadowed by more of us who had no side effects of note from the vaccine.
Historians might say they couldn’t understand why so many of us died (more than 74,000 through July 2021) from COVID while only 4 verified deaths from the vac- cine were validated.
Whatever, the historians say, they will surely talk about how we Black people continued to have crowded parties, funerals, banquets, showers, weddings, beach parties, picnics, didn’t wear masks and engaged in other risky behaviors. We will not look smart by our decisions.
Meanwhile, 177,000 Africans have died since the pandemic started. If the cur- rent trend of the response of Blacks to the Coronavirus pandemic in America contin- ues, historians may very well say African Americans lost a significant part of its popula- tion due to suicide or self-in- flicted genocide.
Harrambe!
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Kudos To Mayor Castor
e extend a hearty “thank you and congratula-
tions” to Mayor Jane Castor for “doing the right thing” for Tampa’s citizens by mandating that City of Tampa employees get vaccinated for COVID-19 or get tested each week and wear N-95 masks while working for the City of Tampa.
There is no doubt her mandate will save the lives of City employees and the citizens they serve, along with their family members and friends. The mandate will not only save lives, but will greatly reduce the spread of the disease.
She has much more compassion and empathy than our Nefarious Governor who refuses to mandate masks for Florida citizens, yet will give you free medicine (Regeron) manufactured by a generous campaign donor if you test positive for COVID-19.
Perhaps, Castor should run for governor, because we believe she would never place the lives of our chil- dren in jeopardy by saying parents should be able to de- cide if they will send their unmasked children to school to infect other children, teachers, bus drivers, staff, and the parents and grandparents of students who take care to wear masks and stay safe distances from people who may be infected.
We count on our elected officials to have common sense and to listen to health experts on issues related to the health of American citizens. Allowing personal freedom to endanger the lives of others is the same as murder with a deadly weapon - the germy body of an uncaring, selfish, moron spouting their right to make everybody else sick.
We stand behind Mayor Castor and any other em- ployer who mandates COVID-19 vaccinations, mask wearing, social distancing, COVID-19 testing, and other measures designed to keep employees, customers, and family members safe.
We hope Hillsborough County and the State of Florida will follow suit. It’s a shame that people are still dying from COVID-19 when simple acts like wear-
ing masks and getting vaccinated could eradicate COVID-19 and reduce unnecessary deaths.
We encourage all of our readers to get vaccinated. The life you save may be yours or your loved ones.
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY PAGE 5-A