This column is written the day after the Cape Girardeau Public Schools Board of Education decided to re-implement a mask mandate after daily student attendance dropped below 90% in most of the district's schools. According to a story by my newsroom colleague Monica Obradovic, 306 of the CGPS' 4,475 students were in quarantine as of Tuesday evening -- with 28 children positive for COVID-19.

Dug in

It's hard for me to recall a recent issue as polarizing as masking. Media consumers, which would include you, dear reader, have been inundated with stories on this topic -- ergo, there is no need to revisit them in this limited space.

If you support masking and being vaccinated, you are on one side of the question.

Conversely, if you oppose masking and have declined a vaccine dose, you are on the other.

With some exceptions, neither side appears to be budging from its position.

In reflection, I'm reminded of the Old Testament narrative in Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25 as the Israelites, after the death of mighty Samson, "did what was right in their own eyes."

We all speak and act with the light we're given, with our behavior conditioned by filtering our life's experiences through our minds.

In 2021, a second COVID year in America, we've all made decisions about COVID.

A genial and pleasant younger man, who does some work for us at our home on occasion, is unvaccinated.

He thinks the vaccine got rushed to the public and given his pre-existing medical conditions, is unwilling to risk receiving a dose he considers unproven in terms of efficacy.

We're on the opposite sides here -- but we've chosen to put our relationship above our disagreement.

It is clear, though, that there is little daylight between the Israel of antiquity and Southeast Missouri of the 21st century.

Then as now, the words of Scripture hold up.

All do what is right in their own eyes.

A way forward

A Facebook friend wrote a lengthy and heartfelt post the other day she graciously is allowing me to repeat here.

She said she believes the pandemic is truly endemic now, meaning COVID-19 is not going away and we'll all have to learn to live into the foreseeable future with its various strains and variants.

Her attention, she wrote, is no longer on the disease but on behavior -- admitting she has carried around "anger, angst and discontent" during this long night of the coronavirus.

Keeping in mind that most folks are "dug in" about masking and vaccination, that polarization seems our default position on COVID, I thought my friend's closing words were worth repeating in this space.

"Shame, blame and hate (aren't) going to pull us through this horrific ordeal (how is that working for us now?), but an outstretched hand and a willingness to put all of that nonsense aside can. Will we survive this pandemic? Yes, we absolutely will, but not if we don't love our brothers regardless of their sins or ours!"