From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):            DAY    USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85 Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118 Dec     30       3880    14748       1224       299      465 Jan      14       4142    15512       1151       189      712 Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398 Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194 April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37 May    4         853     13667        3025      3786      59   June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95  July   7          251      8440        1595        817     411 A

 The news of the day: 70% of American adults have taken at least one shot , finally hitting Biden's target, but about a month late.   However, keep in mind that the 0-11 age group has not yet been vaccinated, and they represent 15% the U.S. population.   This means that the unvaccinated figure is slightly higher than 40%. According to my posting yesterday, the Delta variant means herd immunity is at 92%.  We are thus today below 60%. Some states have returned to mandatory masking. While we are a humane country and don't want our citizens in jeopardy, those vaccinated are actually being discriminated against. What about allowing the vaccinated full freedom to not wear masks and letting them enter theaters, restaurants, cruise ships, airplanes and the like, while preventing those unvaccinated from these privileges? More and more mandates are actually being invoked, and found by the courts to be legal. But you say, some unvaccinated will find a way to circumvent the system.  I say

It all began with Amanda Gorman, who was 22 when she shined at Joe Biden's inauguration earlier this year.  While she was new to most of us, she had in 2015 published a poetry book,   The One for Whom Food is Not Enough .  Plus, in 2017 she had already become the first National Youth Poet Laureate. That introduction to the general public catapulted her to an even bigger stage, the pregame ceremony for  Super Bowl LV , where she read a poem honoring the heroes of the pandemic: So while we honor them, it is they, every day, who honor us. In the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics around a quarter of the athletes representing the U.S. were Black.  You can expect  about as many in Tokyo .  While Simone Biles and Sha'Carri Richardson led the list, Simone is too famous to qualify for this posting, and Richardson was not selected for failing a marijuana test.  However, black females dominate the U.S. basketball and track teams.  One of them will attain international stardom through her victories