Feeling Good About People Dying of Covid

I'm struggling with my response to learning that specific anti-vax people have died. And I'm certainly not the only one.

Yesterday, Pressley Stutts, a Republican leader who fought vaccination efforts in South Carolina, died, after six days on a ventilator. Stutts frequently shared conspiracy theories about vaccines, the virus, and the 2020 election on his Facebook page.

On Instagram I saw a posting about anti-vaxxer Stutts and there were over 1000 comments, almost all of them celebrating and joking about his death. When I read it, even before seeing the comments, I had a similar thought-- that he deserved it. I'm not comfortable with that feeling or thought.

Paul Krugman wrote in an article, The Quiet Rage of the Responsible, writes that the US could have returned to close to normal but didn't because of the people who refuse vaccines and people who have refused to wear masks, saying,

"The reason it hasn't, the reason we are instead still living in fear, with hospitals in much of the South nearing breaking point..." is them.

Krugman also says, commenting on the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers,

"I'm angry about their antics... And I suspect that many Americans share that anger.

The question is whether this entirely justified anger, call it the rage of the responsible, will have a political impact."

I went running today, after getting this far in writing this article. I listened to some Ted Talks on getting along: on "Don't Call People Out-- Call Them In," by Loretta J. Ross,

and on "How to disagree productively and find common ground," by Julia Dhar.

I don't like the angry way I sometimes respond to people I disagree with. I'm not sure the Ted Talk suggestions would work with people who are only here to argue, but there are some ideas that I'm going to try.

I've asked a few people about Stutts and they, all vaccinated people, have all said pretty much the same thing, that he deserved it. But out there on the web it's getting much worse.

Do a search for "unvaccinated are terrorists" and most of the results are the unvaccinated complaining that soon they will be on the no-fly list and treated like the Taliban. Some people are saying it. I wouldn't mind if proof of vaccination would be required to get on a plane, at least to another state. And it's probably true that some of them are terrorists or terrorist sympathizers-- supporters of the capitol invasion of January 6th.

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