Naturally, on this first anniversary of the Insurrection at the living symbol of our democracy, we here at AP have much to say.
But we have both a moral and a political obligation to have our say on the very appropriate decision by the Australian Border Police to refuse entry to tennis superstar Novak Djokovic (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/sports/tennis/novak-djokovic-australia-visa.html).
Our vast corps of associate solitary reporters has noticed that hundreds of thousands of individuals who refuse the common sense solution to Covid-19, namely, masks and vaccinations, have claimed
a religious or medical exemption.
No joke, but, given his status as a world class athlete, we see no reason why Djokovic should qualify for any kind of medical exemption; and as to religious exemptions, that’s a no brainer. None
of any of that for him.
This leads us straight to the point: the man is even more arrogant than Donald Trump, who at least received the vaccine while at the same time greatly encouraging his rabid followers by telling
them that they can do whatever they want.
During his marriage of almost fifty years to a wonderful woman from Packerland, your solitary reporter spent considerable time watching the Green Bay Packers and, in recent years, admiring the
indomitable spirit of superstar Aaron Rodgers, yet another anti-vaxxer who was forced to sit out a game because he lied about his vaccination status.
So we are wondering whether to give Djokovic credit for being honest, but that’s also a no-brainer: his self-regard is way too over the top.
Finally, patient readers, we get to the anniversary of January 6.
Among those seriously misguided people who attended Trump’s January 6 Rally on the Ellipse (where he said that he would accompany his minions to the Capitol, only he never), there are numerous
men and women who are now running for public office, all the way down to school board, and their claimed cachet is that they were at that rally, or, even more so, that they broke into the Capitol
during their self-announced visit to the building as happy tourists (https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/05/politics/jan-6-capitol-riot-lancaster-republicans/index.html). For example, in always red Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Stephen and Danielle Lindemuth
attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” Rally on January 6 and then won seats on their local school board, even though several local GOP officials endorsed their Democratic opponents.
So, as usual, we persuaded associate solitary reporter Keith Coleman to visit with the Lindemuths.
“Keith,” they said, with no encouragement, “Donald Trump is the Savior of the World. We are prepared to die for him.”