Today at the Editor’s glance: What’s left of the Bunnell City Commission–it’s down to three members, two others having resigned–meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall. The commission, presumably taking a more grown-up approach than that allowed the Palm Coast City Council by its dynamite-everything-in-sight duo (Ed Danko and Victor Barbosa) will set its tentative tax rate for 2021-22. The commission is also expected to make two appointments to fill the seats vacated by Bill Baxley and Donnie Nobles, to complete their terms, which expire in March. In Court: Circuit Judge Terence Perkins is back from a week away and has a docket-full of trials. See the list here. That’s assuming the court moves ahead with trials in light of covid’s resurgence in Flagler: last week the Seventh Judicial Circuit suspended in-person jury trials in Volusia, St. Johns and Putnam but kept them going in Flagler. Ford Motor Co. is also on trial on a claim of breach of warranty.
Vaccinations and Covid testing: Given the continued increase in COVID-19 cases in the community, the Flagler County Health Department (DOH-Flagler) will continue its COVID testing and vaccination sites for the upcoming week. Flagler County recorded nearly 400 new cases of Covid in the week ending Friday compared with 240 one week ago. If you have not done so already, please consider getting vaccinated at one of the following locations:
Mondays from 5 to 6PM, Santa Maria Del Mar Catholic Church, 915 N Central Ave, Flagler Beach.
Tuesdays from 4:30 to 6:30PM, Flagler County Health Department, 301 Dr. Carter Blvd, Bunnell.
Wednesdays from 5 to 6PM, First United Methodist Church, 205 N. Pine Street, Bunnell.
Fridays from 9AM to 11AM, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 4600 Belle Terre Pkwy, Palm Coast.
NOTE: There will be no COVID testing at the health department on Friday afternoons.
Vaccination appointments are preferred, but walk-ups will be accepted. Please call 386-437-7350 ext. 0 for scheduling or questions. Nearly all pharmacies in Flagler County offer COVID-19 vaccinations and testing, and 12 offer Pfizer, which is approved for individuals ages 12 and over.
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Nar-Anon Family Group
Flagler County Beekeepers Association Meeting
Bunnell City Commission Meeting
Book Dragons, the Kids’ Book Club, at Flagler Beach Public Library
NAACP Flagler Branch General Membership Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Meeting
Fall Horticultural Workshops
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
For the full calendar, go here.
“I am certainly not suggesting that I feel a nostalgia for these empires; I do not dream of seeing them restored. Not the empire of the Habsburgs nor the Tsars, still less that of the Sultans. What I do regret is the disappearance of a particular mindset that existed in the time of empires, one that considered it normal and acceptable for peoples to be part of a single political entity without necessarily sharing the same religion, the same language, or even the same history. I have never accepted the idea that peoples with different languages or different religions would be better off living independently of each other. I will never accept the notion that ethnicity, religion, or race are legitimate foundations on which to build nations. How many abject failures, how many massacres, how much “ethnic cleansing” must we endure before this barbaric approach to the issue of identity ceases to be considered normal, realistic, and “consistent with human nature”?”
–Amin Maalouf, “Adrift: How Our World Lost Its Way” .
The 2021 Special Election for Palm Coast Mayor
Ray W. says
A decade or more ago, I read an account written by a Serbian Muslim father and husband who had lost much of his family to ethnic cleansing. He described the leader of the Serbian death squad that took over his village as being a former factory coworker. He wrote of having invited the man and his family into his home for meals, of their children playing together, of shared holiday activities, of working side-by-side in the factory for years. He could not get over the hatred displayed in the facial gestures of his former friend as Muslims were rounded up and segregated, with some children and women eventually murdered along with most of the men. He could not understand how someone he thought he knew could change so dramatically. Do not underestimate the level of hatred we are all capable of forming for those whom we decide are “others.” When talk show hosts speak of beheading Democrats, do not doubt their words; they really mean it.
I don’t really agree with the author’s use of the term barbaric when describing the violence that has long accompanied identity politics. To me, savagery is the better term. In some forms of ancient Greek philosophy, a civilized person was Greek, but he or she had to have been educated in the academies of their day. A barbarian was a non-Greek who was capable of benefitting from an academy education, but a barbarian could never be a civilized person, because he or she was not Greek. A savage was an uneducable non-Greek; he or she had no interest in learning from a civilized Greek academy or teacher.