Alabama’s Lt. governor is COVID-positive. Y’all don’t be so negative. - al.com

Alabama’s Lt. governor is COVID-positive. Y’all don’t be so negative.

Will Ainsworth

Alabama Republican Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth tested positive for the coronavirus despite wearing a mask, he says. But that's not the point. (Bob Gathany/bgathany@AL.­com)

This is an opinion column.

Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth is getting some nasty messages since he tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Guess Karma and Natural Selection caught up with your dumb white ass,” said one email Ainsworth shared with me. “May you die gasping for your last breath!”

It’s probably not a spiritually safe practice to invoke karma in one sentence before wishing someone death in the next, but moving on.

“You’re 1 step closer to (skull emoji, coffin emoji, laughing-through-tears emoji),” one fellow tweeted at him.

Yes, when sending hate-tweets, please limit your hieroglyphics to three.

Let’s be clear, no matter how you feel about Ainsworth, wishing death on people is not OK. No matter how cathartic it might feel, it’s not good for your soul, and from a more secular standpoint, it just gives the folks you’re hate-mailing more reason to believe you’re crazy and they’re right.

Which is a shame, because I believe there’s a lesson the lieutenant governor could learn here, and I think there’s a better message he could send than the one he’s been sharing, before and after his diagnosis.

Since Ainsworth went public with his test (points for transparency), he has been a bit defensive about it. That’s understandable. The lieutenant governor has criticized Gov. Kay Ivey for keeping a statewide mask mandate in place, and he’s said the decision whether to wear a mask should be left to the individual. He still says that, even now.

But Wednesday night, Ainsworth wanted to make clear he’d been wearing a mask when he thinks he contracted the disease.

“Because I follow social distancing rules and wear a mask both in church and in my daily interactions, the positive result shows that even those of us who are the most cautious can be at risk,” he said.

Now, others on social media have found pictures of Ainsworth not doing either of those things. Heck, he shares them on Twitter. But I’ll let that be.

Again, there’s a bigger lesson to be learned here.

Ainsworth tested positive on Wednesday and says he suspects he contracted the disease at his church on Sunday. Aside from a runny nose — which he told me allergies give him much of the year — he hasn’t had any symptoms. He had been active on Monday and Tuesday, and he played tennis the night before he tested positive. If it weren’t for his pastor informing him a member of his Sunday school class had fallen ill, Ainsworth says he might never have checked.

And that’s the thing. And let’s shout this one so the sinners' pew can hear it: Masks aren’t to protect you from the disease; they protect others when you have the disease and don’t know it.

It doesn’t matter so much whether Ainsworth wore a mask at church. It matters whether the person he got it from was wearing a mask.

And it matters less whether he was wearing a mask on Sunday than if he wore one on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ainsworth is an example that you can have the disease and potentially spread it to others without knowing it. But he still says wearing a mask is an individual responsibility.

America is built on individualism, but this disease exploits our focus on self. Individual responsibility does not slow community spread. We can only slow the spread of this disease if everyone works together.

It is a test, not of how we protect ourselves, but what we do to protect others.

Ainsworth says he’s feeling well and is quarantining with his family. On the radio Thursday morning, he said he’ll go back to church when he’s better. I hope when he does, he will have learned a lesson.

But in case he hasn’t, perhaps his pastor can get that message through. It’s an old one, a classic but appropriate for our time — good for soul, mind and body. And not nearly so nasty as what Ainsworth is catching on Twitter.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.

More columns by Kyle Whitmire

For one Alabama senator, too little daycare regulation is still too much

What did Tommy Tuberville know and when do we get to know it?

Don’t vote for stupid.

The virus speaks for itself — and louder than Trump.

Coronavirus, Kay Ivey and the Roy Moore Rule of Alabama politics

Tuberville’s qualifications are up for debate, but he’s not.

Public information access ranking puts Alabama dead last.

If you have time to read this, you have time to fill out the Census

I’m a middle-aged straight white man. I didn’t know I owed RBG, too.

Proposed LGBTQ charter school scored high marks. Alabama rejected it anyway.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.