By Ray Cardello for February 7, 2022 Season 8 / Post 40

Most people are celebrating the end of the COVID Pandemic. Most people are thrilled never to have to don a face mask ever again. Most folks are excited about a sense of normalcy, whatever that might be, returning to their lives. School administrators in some cities and towns are not these people. These folks tell us we will have to rip the mandates from their dying hands, and they will not go down without a fight.

These are the contrasts in the way we look at the end of the Pandemic, which stripped us of our liberties for two years. All in the name of flattening the curve. Flattening the curve was a two-week period in 2020 to isolate and stop the spread of the virus so the hospitals could catch up. Two weeks grew to two years, and Americans are restless. They want to see an official end of the Pandemic declared by Biden or the CDC. We are looking at Finland and Ireland ceasing all mandates and restrictions, and we want to follow suit. Some say not so fast.

A local middle-high school is instituting an in-house detention plan for any student not wearing or wearing a mask incorrectly. Ironically, on the notice from the administration is a picture of the mask available at the school bookstore in school colors with the mascot silkscreened. The mask is cloth. A useless cloth mask, according to the CDC. So you can avoid detention by wearing a cloth mask that protects no one. Brilliant.

Loudon, Virginia, is the epicenter for an out-of-control school board that has been in the news for months. The new governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, signed an executive order on his first day in office that forbids the enforcing of mask mandates and puts the decision in the hands of the parents. That order is not good enough for Loudon. If a student at Loudon High School does not wear a mask, they will be confined until picked up by their parents. They will then be suspended and charged with Trespassing if they return to the campus. Trespassing in Virginia carries up to a twelve-month jail sentence and a fine of $2,500. A class 3 misdemeanor for not wearing a mask! What world are these people living in?

The overzealous town council implemented a mask mandate in January that expires in March in my town. What is so magical about March? Are these people prognosticators as well as power-hungry small-town politicians? They are caught up in the movements of cities, towns, and school boards around the country to keep the masses under control until the masses rise and say no more. Well, the masses have risen. I see fewer people in masks as I shop at the local retailers. 

The state of Oregon just adopted a different method to maintain power. The Oregon Health Authority has adopted “permanent” rules requiring masks in some settings, including schools and health care facilities. There is no basis for such a draconian rule. People, of course, are protesting, and they should until this edict is dropped.

As soon as the latest variant of COVID, Omicron, was identified to be nothing more than a cold or mild flu, the China Flu Flag should have come down. The era of COVID is over. It was a two-year run for the power-hungry. They had a good run, but the power is now going back to the people.

Humans have always accepted risk in every facet of life. Living with the risk of illness is one that we need to take without surrendering our freedoms. Mandates now are government overreach and must end, and we have the power to stop them. That power is our vote, and it is now time for us to take every vote we cast more seriously.

 This article was first published on The Liberty Loft thelibertyloft.com