This week marked a tragic milestone in America’s history: One MILLION Deaths from COVID.
It’s appropriate that we revisit a previous post I did visualizing the extent of this tragedy with white flags planted on the lawn of The Mall in Washington.
But first, a graphic that puts the million deaths in some perspective
This is from a wonderfully done article in WaPo briefly following the arc of this tragedy:
REDUX: From my previous post of almost a year ago:
https://www.7thstep.org/blog/2021/09/26/solemn-sunday-commemorating-americans-lost-from-covid-19/
In the spring of 2020, Artist Susanne Brennan Firstenberg was incensed when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX) told Tucker Carlson, while discussing the raging COVID pandemic, that “There are more important things than living.”
Patrick even went further during that interview to suggest grandparents should be willing to die from COVID in order to save the economy for their grandchildren.
“That really disturbed me,” Firstenberg, who’s worked as a Hospice volunteer for over 25 years, told ABC News. But it inspired her into action with creation of her first display of more than 267,000 small white flags on the four-acre D.C. Armory Parade Grounds in the fall of 2020, just outside RFK Stadium.
Moved by the overwhelming response to her first installation, she knew that second one would require a much larger venue. She began discussions with the Federal Parks Service, and was successful in securing a site on the National Mall of more than 20 acres next to the Washington Monument. It borders the White House, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the World War II Memorial.
The installation, In America: Remember, was opened for viewing from September 17 thru October 3, 2021.
Firstenberg enlisted the services of Ruppert Landscape for 150 employees working with a corps of volunteers to place the flags in 143 geometric sections that create 3.8 miles of walking paths. Scattered throughout the display are numerous white benches, making it easy for visitors’ quiet reflections.
The installation was designed to be interactive. There were 10,000 Sharpies available for visitors to use to inscribe personal messages on the flags.
At the opening ceremony dedication, Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, noted that the flag display is the largest installation on the Mall since the that of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another collaborative art piece that was displayed multiple times during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
Firstenberg, compelled by outrage she felt for Trump and his fellow Republicans constantly downplaying the pandemic during the election, was inspired to create her first installation at RFK Stadium. She hoped her second installation will convince people to get vaccinated.
“The last thing I want to do is to have to buy more flags.”
ADDENDUM
While Firstenberg’s efforts certainly had an impact, sadly there remains a group of Trumpkin Luddites who have refused to follow the science Dr. Fauci and so many other distinguished healthcare professionals have so bravely provided.
From NPR, here is a graph of the estimate of adults who could have been saved if they had been vaccinated:
And this is a map where most of the anti-vaxxer troglodytes lived:
I’m sure you can see a correlation between deaths (largely due to anti-vaxxers) by state and the Trumpkin voters.
