The biggest story in New York City right now is the lifting of mask mandates for school children and patrons of businesses and restaurants no longer needing to show proof of vaccination.
And, while I’m thrilled that my children can now go to school, breathe without restrictions, and enjoy medical privacy when dining out, I’m dissatisfied.
The “good news” comes after a long and disruptive two years in New York City. All aspects of life have been restricted. And our rights have been unconstitutionally trampled without so much as an apology.
Blunting the return to “freedom” is New York Governor Hochul, who, seemingly lacking all self-awareness, says, “In New York State, we have no tolerance for bullying. Full stop.”
Mandates were only about bullying. Full stop.
For two years, bereft of science and logic, the one group at next to zero risk, children, were targets of the Left’s obsessive control for power and the face of bullying. School children were collectively abused, mistreated as poisonous vectors of transmission and merchants of death. No one knows the magnitude of harm to health, emotions, and stability but we already know there has been significant damage.
New York City parents were faced with miserable options; no school, homeschool or relocation.
We were bullied into submission.
After two years of propaganda, indoctrination, unleashing unmitigated fear onto the malleable minds of children, some might opt to continue masking in school.
My former position was one of believed empathy; that making allowances for those to mask or not mask is a sign of acceptance. I no longer feel as such. I now take the position that it is unempathetic to encourage and accept what can only be considered a cry for help.
No healthy child should be wearing a mask.
Allowing masks at school blunts the abuse perpetrated by adults, which is perhaps the motive behind the campaign dedicated to not “bully” maskers. I’m not advocating bullying students, but I am positing that we can no longer allow them to continue being politically expedient shills for the Left.
Furthermore, many children were unable to participate in life due to the vaccine mandates. All the cultural jewels that make New York City desirable necessitated children to show proof of an experimental vaccine. What sort of message does this send to children regarding wanton disregard of medical privacy and the ease at which they were disregarded from life?
If isolated, the “sudden” reversal of the mandates is crazy on the heels of the inescapable messaging that we’re all going to die juxtaposed to entering the next school day as if science and statistics have instantaneously changed.
They haven’t.
So, in an effort to make the removal of mandates and the collateral damage less obvious, attempts to tether us to false narratives remain. Seemingly, the government and educators need some students to continue masking, giving the appearance that they care about children’s rights.
Children’s rights were dismissed at the onset of the pandemic. Even towards the endemic, when no argument could made to justify the tyrannical measures because almost everyone with brain activity above plant life knew the statistics and witnessed firsthand the damage of the mandates, the reasons for keeping them in place pivoted to protecting adults. Is this not an outright dismissal of children’s rights?
Children are not meant to protect adults. Adults are meant to protect children. And let me be the first to say, I would rather Hochul and her ilk mask in perpetuity if it means my kids can breathe.
Moreover, encouraging and allowing some students to mask sends a terrible message to those attempting to resume life; that paranoia, virtue signaling, and a repudiation of science is healthy.
For all the talk circulating amongst self-righteous New York City parents over the course of the last two years regarding not wanting their children to play with those that are unmasked and unvaccinated, maybe we should have an honest conversation about the alternative situation.
As a parent, I’m not comfortable with my children being around maskers. Maskers are victims and I don’t want my children to be victims. I’m uncomfortable upending my children’s strained grip on reality that these two years have yielded. And I can think of no sound, safe, or sane argument to be made necessitating lying to my children about why some of their peers undoubtedly will continue to mask post this Monday when the lifting of mandates goes into effect here in New York City.
Jacqueline Toboroff
IG @jacquelinefornyc
Twitter @jacquetnyc
