Congressman John Lewis of Georgia passed away last Friday. CBS Sunday Morning re-ran this wonderful interview with the civil rights leader, walking the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma. Rep Lewis served Georgia for seventeen terms. I am reflecting on his legacy by reading The Children by David Halberstam. While promoting the book, Halberstam said this at the Newseum's Freedom Forum:
It's a reminder of untapped potential if we don't reach out. How many people have these abilities, but have never had a chance to play the full possibilities of their lives. John Lewis is just, to me, one of the heroes. John Lewis, I think, is the single best American citizen I've ever known. I mean, he is so steadfast. Here we are forty years later and he's still doing ten times more things than he should. He's a congressman. He's generous-hearted. He's not a separatist. He treats everybody the way they would like to be treated. He reaches out to everyone. He still talks about the good community, the noble community, the beloved community that Jim Lawson first mentioned to him. I mean, he was a person who could have had a wasted life that we would never reach.
We forget so readily in this country that particular part of our shameful history, and how much energy went into suppression of the human spirit. Which is why this movement is so great, cause … it is a children's movement and it is really about … the nobility of ordinary people.
And out of this comes the best moment in American democracy teaching all the rest of us about what citizenship is.
Another difficult loss for Georgia, Rev CT Vivian, Rep Lewis' friend and fellow civil rights activist also passed away on Friday. Like Rep Lewis, he was also the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Together, Rep Lewis and Rev Vivian worked to end segregation, and were key players in bringing about the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965). They started by ordering coffee at a segregated lunch counter, and ended by assuring civil rights and the right to vote for all American.
Halberstam offers The Children to the next generation. He writes about the practical but powerful symbiosis between the journalists and the activists – a reflective, reinforcing relationship requiring a responsible fourth estate (in the 1960's, the new medium was television). I think about Black Lives Matter, our current media and politics, and all that the previous generation has sacrificed and built – of course, those children are now passing away. I certainly hope the models and lessons of these two great Americans, true freedom fighters and revolutionary thinkers, will not be lost on their state or their nation during this pandemic.
Each day of the health crisis brings more dire news from Georgia as well. Gov Kemp is suing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to prevent her from proceeding with a face mask ordinance – a middle-schooler's 'infinity-plus-one' escape logic. Meanwhile, Georgia's numbers are spiking to obscene levels, and Georgia's hospitals are filling with COVID-19 patients.
As summer started and states re-opened, rather than miraculously disappearing as President Trump continues to proclaim, COVID-19 spread. It is now nearly out of control in the south and desert west, as records fall nearly every day. Global case numbers crossed fourteen million and death counts passed six hundred thousand just a few days ago. In the US, the case count is approaching four million, and deaths are closing on one hundred and fifty thousand. Most worrying, hospital ICU's across the nation are nearing capacity.
In Georgia, the case count is over one hundred and forty thousand (143,132), with nearly thirty-two hundred deaths (3,173). The seven-day average that we've been tracking has required another stretch of the Y-axis, and is up to 3741.4 new cases per day.
In Portugal, the case count is nearing fifty thousand, with nearly seventeen hundred deaths – Georgia's case total is nearly triple, and the death total is nearly double. After two weeks of local lock-downs, Portugal's seven-day average is back down to 303.4 cases per day; Georgia's daily case rate is now over twelve times Portugal's.
Think back to April when Georgia and Portugal had similar numbers. The difference: Georgia restricted activities later, and re-opened sooner – by just just a few days at the beginning and end. When the situation worsened, Portugal re-established local lock-downs, while Georgia's state government did not apply further restrictions.
In terms of total cases, Portugal drops out of the top-forty, to forty-second on the big table of coronavirus nations, having been passed by the Dominican Republic and Israel, but also passing (again) Singapore.
Oddly, as we consume the US news, it is hard to keep things in perspective. In Europe, for example, Portugal is now seen as a 'hot spot'. It's current fourteen-day death rate of 0.8 per-100,000 population is tied for second highest in the EU with Bulgaria, but far behind Sweden's 1.9 per-100,000. Contrast Sweden and Portugal to Georgia (all have populations of just over ten million), whose fourteen-day death rate is 2.9 per-100,000 (311 deaths for 10.6 million population).
Using the Euronews methodology, for the previous 'fourteen days' (July 3-17, actually fifteen days), Sweden reports 6,642 new COVID-19 cases or 57.3 per-100,000. Portugal reports 5,295 or 47.9 per-100,00. Georgia reports 47,474 or 447.2 per-100,000. The virus is spreading on a different scale in the US.
cases: 14,497,863 global • 3,840,973 USA • 48,636 Portugal
deaths: 606,494 global • 142,926 USA • 1,689 Portugal
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