Anti-Vaccine Archbishop

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Former Saint Louis, Missouri Archbishop Raymond L. Burke was a vaccine skeptic. He was placed on a ventilator days after being diagnosed with COVID-19. A message from his team asked that supporters “pray the Rosary for him.” He tested positive on August 11, 2021.

Whether Burke has been vaccinated is unknown, but he spoke out against vaccine mandates at the May 2020 Rome Life Forum, saying “vaccination itself cannot be imposed, in a totalitarian manner, on citizens.” He’s also quoted theories that the vaccine contains “microchips” used to control citizens. In the same address, he reportedly argued that the church had not insisted enough on continuing in-person services during the coronavirus pandemic.

He said that the virus is being used by certain forces to bring about a “Great Reset” in which they will bring about a “new normal” through imposition of complete control over people through manipulation and fear. Burke called for prayer and penance to combat the Great Reset.

He also added, “It must be clear that it is never morally justified to develop a vaccine through the use of the cell lines of aborted fetuses.” COVID-19 vaccines do not contain any aborted fetal cells. However, Pfizer and Moderna did perform confirmation tests (to ensure the vaccines work) using fetal cell lines. Fetal cell lines are not the same as fetal tissue. Fetal cell lines are cells that re grown in a laboratory. They descend from cells taken from elective abortions in the 1970s and 1980s. Current fetal cell lines are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue. They do not contain any tissue from a fetus.

For those curious about the visual reference in my painting, the sword is a reference to the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket. Thomas was a long time friend of King Henry II who appointed Thomas as the Archbishop. Thomas then turned on the king when ecclesiastical interests ran contrary to royal interests. Henry II grew so exasperated by Thomas Becket that one day, in public, he asked of no one in particular, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” The question was meant to be rhetorical, but four of his knights took the question literally. They traveled to Canterbury and they murdered Thomas Becket in the cathedral, on December 29, 1170.

Fanning the Flames of Hate

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Democratic Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris gave a speech before the final night of the Republican National Convention. She said, “My message is simple, reject these voices, this president who has been fanning the flames Of hate.” On August 24, 2020 at the  Republican National Convention, the suburban Bonnie and Clyde, who threatened protestors marching past their Saint Louis mansion, were given a platform to sew seeds of fear in fellow Americans. The very fact that they were raised up by the reality TV president means that others will follow their lead and take to the streets brandishing their weapons. Vigilantes are being encouraged.

The couple is facing weapons charges for the June 28, 2020 incident. They each face a single felony count of unlawful use of a weapon. Charging documents say that pointing an AR-15 rifle at protesters and wielding a semiautomatic handgun, placing protesters in fear of injury. Saint Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner said, “It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest. Protesters said they were not on the home owner’s property. A group of neighborhood residents later condemned Bonnie and Clyde’s actions.

On August 23, 2020 a policeman shoot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man 4 times in the back. Seven shots were fired. Jacob is paralyzed from the waist down. He was shot as he opened the driver’s door to his SUV. His 3 sons were in the back seat. The police shooting was followed by Kenosha protests which included marches, property damage, and arson.

The day after Bonnie and Clyde spoke at the Republican National Convention, Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17 year old self-described militia member from Illinois, borrowed friend’s a AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and killed two Kenosha protestors named Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26.  Gaige Grosskreutz, 26 was injured. In my mind, Rittenhouse felt justified taking a long gun to the streets because Bonnie and Clyde had been praised at the Republican National Convention.

The shootings are documented on multiple cell phone videos. The exact order of the evenings horror are still being pieced together. Trump continues to bring chaos to the streets of America while encouraging armed vigilantes. His followers are legitimately a threat to this country and each other. Tucker Carlson of Fox News seemed to justify Rittenhouse’s vigilante shootings, “Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder?” Carlson said during his show on Wednesday night August 26, 2020. “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?” “Fire Tucker Carlson Now” was trending on Twitter following his comments.

The Thaxton

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My final stop on my Saint Louis sketch crawl was The Thaxton (1009 Olive St, St. Louis, MO 63101). Today, it is a historic art deco themed venue with a vintage vibe that offers unique events. The space can be rented for weddings and private events. When not privately booked, it is open to the public as the Thaxton Speakeasy, a downtown underground lounge. I didn’t know this as I was sketching. I assumed it was an old historic theater.

Architects, Klipstein and Rothman designed The Thaxton building as well as the Civil Courts Building in downtown St. Louis. The building was constructed in 1928 for Eastman Kodak. The original use of the building was as a retail camera store. Eastman
Kodak had plans to erect a total of 100 identical buildings throughout
the United States. Today, it is the only known building left of five,
that were built before the Great Depression.

At a restaurant next door, someone was delivering topiarys for the front entrance. They were stacked in the back of a pick up and then moved to each side of the front door.

Old Customs House St. Louis

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There are so many gorgeous historic buildings to sketch in downtown St. Louis. Coming from Central Florida where strip malls seem to dominate our landscape, it was such a treat to have so many choices when it came to sketching classic architecture.

Located at 815 Olive Street, the Old Customs House and Post Office (OPO), was designed by architects Alfred B. Mullett, William Appleton Potter, and James G. Hill, and was constructed between 1873 and 1884. It is one of four surviving Federal office buildings designed by Mullett.

One of the stories surrounding the construction of the OPO is that it
was built on quicksand.  In 1873, while the workers were digging the
foundation, they struck a large rolling bed of quicksand. Several
hundred men worked to stem the flow of the quicksand and only succeeded
after driving pine support beams deep into the bedrock, then packing 500
bales of cotton around the beams, and covering it with four feet of
limestone concrete slabs. 

The third floor of building was occupied by the U.S District Court until
1935, when it moved to new quarters at 12th and Market streets. The
Post Office remained until 1970, occupying the main basement and the
first floor. A number of Federal agencies were housed on the fourth
floor.

Someone walking by told me that On March 15, 1884, General William Tecumseh Sherman, one of the great Civil War heroes, presided over the dedication of the building. At the time, the building also served as a storage site for up to $4 million in gold bullion.  In January 2006, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, moved its offices to the OPO.

St. Louis Downtown

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This downtown park in St. Louis was a gorgeous spot to sketch. The sun was out, flowers were blooming and workers were relaxing on their lunch breaks. Food trucks lines the streets around the park offering plenty of lunch time food options.

The Civil Courts Building is predominant in the center of my sketch. It was built in 1930. It was part of an $87 million bond issue ratified by voters in 1923 to build monumental buildings along the Memorial Plaza.  The Plaza and the buildings were part of St. Louis’s City Beautiful plan.
It replaced the Old Courthouse as the city’s court building and its construction prompted the descendants of the founding father Auguste Chouteau
to unsuccessfully sue the city to get the Old Courthouse back since there was a
stipulation that it would always be the city’s courthouse.

The pyramid roof on the top was designed to resemble the Mausoleum of Mausolus which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. During St. Louis PrideFest
the building has lit its columns up in a rotating rainbow pattern. The tradition of Pride started in 2012, when the building was first lit up. In
2016 the top of the building lit up with 49 purple lights to show
solidarity to the victims in the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting.

St. Louis Arch

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Chief Curator Pam Schwartz and her team from the Orange County Regional History Center went to St. Louis to collect awards their institution had garnered. While they were in the museum conference, I wandered the city of St. Louis for a day-long sketch crawl. My first stop was to sketch the Gateway Arch.

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot monument, clad in stainless steel. It is the world’s tallest arch, the tallest
man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, and Missouri’s tallest
accessible building. The arch honors the Louisiana Purchase and Saint Louis in it’s role in the westward expansion of the United States. It is considered by many to be the Gateway to the West. The arch has just undergone a 380 million dollar renovation making it and the park more accessible. As I sketched, the park next to me was fenced off and being re-landscaped.

The Old St. Louis County Courthouse (11 N 4th St, St. Louis, MO 63102) was built as a combination federal and state courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri. It was Missouri’s tallest habitable building from 1864 to 1894, and is now part of the Gateway Arch National Park and operated by the National Park Service for historical exhibits and events.

In 1872 Virginia Minor attempted to vote in a St. Louis election and was arrested. Her trials, including the deliberations before the Missouri Supreme Court, were held in this building. The United States Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett (1875) upheld the male-only voting rules, as the Constitution did not address voting rules, which were set by the states. The Minor v. Happersett ruling was based on an interpretation of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Supreme Court readily accepted that Minor was a citizen of the
United States, but it held that the constitutionally protected
privileges of citizenship did not include the right to vote.