I remember it well.
It was a time when little children at Harry Spence Elementary went to school with thoughts of multiplication, fractions and probability. Smiling, they passed others in the hallway, stopping to gossip about their third grade teachers and the new kid in class.
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church held services, sometimes twice a day, celebrating God's saving grace through songs and communion. People met after the service to shake hands and eat cookies, telling each other about their sons attending college or the birth of a new baby girl.
Downtown La Crosse was buzzing with new restaurants and high rise apartments. Workers flooded from buildings -- where they worked 5 days a week --- to meet friends for happy hour and made plans for a weekend getaway. Organizers for Oktoberfest and Riverfest were talking to promoters and sponsors, hoping to make 2020 one to remember.
Liz and I, just back from a vacation in southern California, were looking forward to a weekend in Milwaukee to watch the Bucks and Golden State Warrior play on Saturday night. Joining us for the weekend was Emma who was now head soccer coach for Bethany Lutheran College.
And then things changed...
Like a novel you read years before, vague memories fight their way to the surface, where they bend today's reality into something that seems alien and abnormal. Remote learning, church without singing, empty buildings and cancelled sporting events have become the new norm, and yet I haven't forgotten how much better it was just a few years ago.
It's been almost a year and a half since my last Wu Flu update, with some positive developments and unfortunately, many negative ones.
I find it difficult to believe this country, founded on inalienable rights and individual achievement, is still afraid to call an end to the endless mandates and fear porn coming out of Washington D.C..
Their message, disguised so skillfully by Sleepy Joe, Dr. Evil Fauci and others puppets on school boards, federal agencies and hospital administrations, is one of fear and apocalyptic doom if you don't "follow the science."
It has been a mystery to me why so many good people believe this crap. Why do so many teachers literally throw kids they claim to love "under the bus?" Why are doctors ignoring the Hippocratic Oath they swore to uphold? Why do restaurants enforce mask mandates, but allow you to remove your mask as soon as you sit down?
It's a fear of mine, that people will become so accustomed to their safety protocols, that they will think it's normal. Especially the young, who haven't lived long enough to appreciate the way things used to be. To prove my point, I'm reading about college students demanding virtual learning over in-person learning. "It's too risky!" they yell in protest. Why is everything with them a protest? It's obvious they're not paying the $70,000 a year required to receive such personalized attention.
My own sons seem tolerant of mandates, masks and vaccines regardless of my own objections. There's no reasoning with them -- despite efforts I've made to send really smart articles, emails and videos counteracting the proven science (ha, ha) of these pandemic prevarications. they continue to buy into some tenebrous idea that we should be doing our part for "public health."
I hear something like that, and I'm reminded of the "good German," a term used to describe those who claimed ignorance of the Holocaust and German war crimes. Ignorance, whether intentional or honest is never a good excuse.
One of those really smart videos, from the Brownstone Institute, featured Thomas Harrington, who believes the ruling class has created a "fearful class" in order to control them. Ever since 9/11 they have induced fear as a way to get us to change our behavior. Threats from shoe bombs, planes driven into buildings, white insurgency (January 6) and Trump as Hitler have become common tools used to change the way we fly and disagree with the results of elections. I used to laugh over school cancellations because it might get cold or forecasts call for six inches of snow. How many times have I, as a parent, been told to protect our children from molesters, creepy boy scout leaders and nefarious ice cream vendors? Our children have been told to not dress a certain way for Halloween, misappropriate certain cultures and fear Columbus Day, all under the guise of politically correct sensitivities.
Even adults are subject to messages telling us to fear everyday life. Nothing shows this better than the weather. Moderate snow fall is referred to as a blizzard. Polar vortexes, cyclone bombs and heat domes have become common deterrents from leaving the safety of our houses. And don't get me started on climate change (WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!).
Is there any doubt people would be afraid of Covid?
Think of the harm we are doing to our society. No, not we, but they. If I had any say, I'd be going back to the way we were before March, 2020 with precautions built in for those most susceptible. Either intentionally, (as in rewarding good behavior), or unintentionally (by thinking we are saving the day) we have damage society in irreparable ways. Both efforts turned out to be wrong -- and as a result we've lost our rebellious nature toward risky behavior, and gladly accept anything mandated by authority figures. Say goodbye to critical thinking needed for normal existence.
After two years of Bizzaro world, I see too many good people afraid of, obedient to and eager to enforce the dictates of Washington's elites. We have allowed illogical fear rather than quantifiable risk analysis -- to rule our lives.
The virus has not only changed the way we behave, but also the way we talk and communicate. For years the left has used newspeak to diminish the range of thought and action by reducing freedom of expression as it relates to political beliefs. Affirmative action, Black Lives Matter and women's health are examples of how the left has changed the discussion of bad behavior into something that should be encouraged, even applauded.
The left has been busy as bees working on changing words -- how we communicate questions and answers -- relating to societal norms. During 2021, we can thank Covid -- mostly -- for the following:
Infodemic
Immune response
Misinformation
Covid toes
Drive through __________ (fill in the blank)
Vaccine (new terminology actual means it doesn't provide immunity)
Color revolution
No vac joke covid (Novak Djokovic gets banned)
Circle back
Calling someone (who is black) a white supremacist because you don't want the narrative to change
Undocumented immigrant
Equity (did you know Covid is racist?)
Supply chain
Cisgender
Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine, and Ivermectin. These three alternatives will get you banned quicker than Aaron Rogers can leave Green Bay after losing another playoff game.
Mankind
Master bedroom
Cake walk
Urban
Manhole
Founding Fathers
Sold down the river
Male
Female
Tranny
Actress
Freshman (basically anything that has the word man like anchorman, mailman, or chairman).
It seems that leftists on campus and in corporate America are afraid of words that are not on their "approved" list. They have seen the need to control not only our behaviors but also the way we communicate. Who are these people deciding certain words are harmful or not in line with current newspeak? Fearful authorities who think they are better than you and me..
If topics like the virus, race and gender are viewed as "decided by science," why are they afraid? What do they have to hide?
The truth?
It is essential we don't allow them to do it. Use as many politically incorrect words as you can and watch them squirm and foam at the mouth.
We have seen that fear works both sides of a debate. Authorities are afraid they will lose control, and citizens are afraid that authorities may be right.
Two years after the Wu Flu changed our lives, there are signs enough people have decided
to shift behavior away from fear and toward getting back to normal.
Canadian truckers have formed a freedom protest by driving their trucks from Vancouver to Ottawa to protest Canadian government's vaccine mandates for cross border truckers. It has been so successful that others in America are proposing our own truckers consider a freedom protest.
Contrast their behavior with compliance early in the pandemic. Remember the ban on casual sex, forming a socially distanced queue at the airport before being sardined into a packed plane with the same people two hours later? What about swings in local parks put into quarantined or removed, not allowing people to sit together on a park bench, or best of all, no butterfly strokes while swimming?
We've come a long way since the early days of Covid., and with 70% of people recently polled, many are ready to get on with their lives. Fear is a useful tool for only so long. As months, then years have gone by, people are seeing that -- with intelligent behavior -- there is nothing to fear. Except authoritarian leaders who don't want the party to end.
The choice has always been ours to make. You can go back to refusing to hang the wash out to dry because you're afraid the sheets might catch Covid and infect you -- or scrap the mandates and masks for human interaction the way God meant it to be.
I know which way I'm going, and it won't be because I'm afraid.
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