The contemporary craft of sacrificing society's children
Child sacrifice used to be a thing.
In some societies, adult leaders made such decisions based on a belief that sacrificing children would secure the survival and well-being of the entire society. So innocent little kids were drugged, hauled to some chosen site, bashed in the head and left to die.
For the good of society. Who would do such a thing? Look around you.
The horrifying damage that our government, right here in California, is doing to children, supposedly for the survival and well-being of the entire society, is a monstrous moral crime that cannot ever be forgotten or forgiven.
It was clear in the spring of 2020 that COVID-19 was an illness that was deadly to elderly people with multiple co-morbidities. It was equally clear that most children survived it unscathed.
Nonetheless, children were deprived of classroom education and all the extracurricular and social benefits of school for more than a year. In December 2021, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a youth mental health advisory in which he reported an estimated 6,600 deaths by suicide among the 10-24 age group in 2020.
“In early 2021,” he wrote, “emergency department visits in the United States for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher for adolescent girls and 4% higher for adolescent boys compared to the same time period in early 2019.”
Depression and anxiety are up. These are likely worsened by the policy of requiring children to wear masks all day in school, even the very youngest children in day care, even outside, even when exercising or dancing.
Sunday, it became glaringly obvious that the government officials mandating this policy do not believe masks are necessary to prevent deadly illness in our society.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and San Francisco Mayor London Breed all were seen at SoFi Stadium with big grins and no masks, enjoying the NFC championship game along with 70,000 shoulder-to-shoulder happy, mostly unmasked football fans.
Then Monday came and schoolchildren in California had to wear their depressing, uncomfortable masks all day.
Our government officials don't think they're suffering, or don't care if they are. They say it's for the good of society. But there can be no good for society that comes out of causing innocent children to suffer.
The pandemic restrictions always have been about ease of enforcement, not health. The first orders restricted bars, nightclubs, restaurants and salons, not because these businesses were the most dangerous, but because intimidation of them was so easy. An establishment that requires a liquor license or health permit to operate has no choice but to comply with directives from the government, which can withdraw the permit or license to operate for nearly any reason.
Plexiglass dividers? Done. Reduced capacity? Fine. Arrows on the floor, face shields over masks, gloves, goggles, outdoor seating, sign-in sheets, vaccintion cards — whatever the government's demand, it was accommodated. And if none of it actually worked to stop a respiratory virus, the government could close everybody down again and leave them to pay off the loans for the plexiglass and the patios.
The pandemic response is now only about rules and the enforcement of rules. And there is no group of people more victimized by this regime of enforcement than children in school, who are powerless.
The L.A. County Public Health Department now seems to be pretending to enforce its “Health Officer Order” on everybody else. It sends out “site inspectors” to “assess mask and vaccination compliance,” according to its own daily news releases. Monnday, after the governor and two bigcity mayors smiled for the cameras at Sunday's crowded football game, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer included this statement in a news release: “While some are noting that at large events, like Sunday's NFC championship game, many were seen not wearing masks, non-compliance with a critical safety measure, is not a good reason for ending the requirement. That would be like eliminating speed limits because so many drivers ignore them and feel that they can assess for themselves the safe speed for their travel.”
No, it's not like eliminating speed limits. It's like halting the sacrifice of children, a barbaric practice carried out by vicious or frightened adults who have convinced themselves that someone else's suffering is their ticket to safety and security.