It feels as if things are opening up. Spring is an opening-up time of year. So hearing about various restrictions and mandates being lifted, at least in the U.S., is encouraging.
Heaven knows, we want to be encouraged. By something.
But, like everything else in topsy-turvy-ville, also known as Earth in the current epoch, all is not quite what it seems.
When is an apparent victory actually a hollow sham? When the victory can’t be enforced, of course.
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Texas is opening up! Hooray for the Lone Star State. No more masks required. The guv says so.
But wait…is it really that open? Without doing more than cursory research, I come across a blurb from Peggy Hall’s Healthy American newsletter of March 4, 2021:
“Many have also written from Texas to say that schools are still instituting the restrictions, as are stores. I’ve spoken about this ‘kicking the can down the road’ many, many times.” (1)
Unless store owners, private businesses, and anyone else with a smidgen of power magnanimously decides to go along with the state’s rescinding of restrictions, masks and other infringements on personal liberty may still be enforced. These are petty tyrants, to be sure, but all-powerful in their own domain.
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It doesn’t take my suspicious mind very long before it comes up with the next likely scenario: no admittance without proof of vaccination. This is already happening across the world, although not widely (yet) in the U.S.
So what if an individual state declares mandatory vaccination to be unlawful? It appears that businesses, sports venues, and so forth, will still have the “right” to demand that patrons undergo an experimental medical procedure to partake of their goods and services.
Sounds like free will to me! You have the free will to refrain from submitting to the experimental medical procedure, but then the business has the free will to refuse to serve you.
Common sense (I don’t lay claim to legal expertise) indicates that states may have to go further than simply refraining from mandating vaccinations. They may have to proactively prohibit individual businesses from requiring them of customers.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis puts it plainly, as quoted in a recent article:
“We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said on Monday [3/29/21]. “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.”
The Florida governor, who is probably one of the most freedom-friendly governors in the entire country, also hinted that Republicans in the Sunshine State could take action on the vaccine passport ahead of time, to make sure laws are in the books should the time come when businesses attempt to implement the controversial strategy. (2)
Of even more interest, perhaps, is that some businesses are already leaping in on behalf of the non-vaccinated. An article published on April 2, 2021, notes:
Ian Smith, co-owner of The Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey, took to Twitter on Tuesday, March 23, 2021, to offer free gym memberships to those not taking the Covid Vaccine.
He goes on to say, “We believe in health – the real way – exercise, good diet, plenty of Vitamin D, Zinc, and an environment to destress…In light of Krispy Kreme giving free donuts for receiving the Covid shot, here at The Atilis Gym, we are giving out free memberships to all who don’t get vaccinated.”
The article also notes, “A Canadian gym will not allow anyone into their establishment if they’ve taken the Covid vaccine.” (3)
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Mandates, mostly of the freedom-and-civil-liberty-curtailment variety, have been all over the news this past year. So why not talk instead about mandating freedom?
Absurd as it seems, it might be necessary to enact legislation, in whatever form is appropriate for the context, to protect a new vulnerable segment that is emerging among the world population: humans who refuse to allow governments or other authorities to force an experimental medical procedure on them or their dependents.
After all, these Covid vaccines have had fatal “side effects” numerous times (3,964 reported dead in Europe as of March 13, 2021, per the European database of suspected drug reaction reports, EudraVigilance; and 1,739 dead in the U.S., per the CDC, as of March 20, 2021). (4)
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I’m not much of a rabble rouser. But I’ll be more than happy to sign the petition prohibiting discrimination against the non-vaccine-inclined.
I’m pretty sure there’s already one circulating, somewhere. Let freedom ring, indeed.
(1) https://tinyurl.com/5cek8aeb, 3/4/21, Peggy Hall, thehealthyamerican.org
(2) https://tinyurl.com/53p3bt4n, 3/30/21, stillnessinthestorm.com, “HUGE WIN: Florida Gov. DeSantis Takes Hardline Stance Against ‘Vaccine Passports,’ Will Not Allow Them In His State”
(3) https://tinyurl.com/4f8vayp8, 4/2/21, stillnessinthestorm.com, “Businesses Fight Covid Vaccine Hoax and Lockdown Rules”
(4) https://tinyurl.com/3e3ksazu, 4/2/21, stillnessinthestorm.com, “European Database of Adverse Drug Reactions for Covid 19 Vaccines”
