What are we teaching our kids about America during coronavirus ‘crisis’?

What are our children learning from the oppressive, often illogical, seemingly arbitrary rules being imposed on states and cities during this “state of emergency”? I thought about this while watching so many adults wearing face masks in various stores—oh, and while driving alone in their cars.

Our kids can only be confused by the inconsistencies. Abortionists are essential but dentists are not. Pot shops are open while video game stores are closed. Clothes stores are shuttered, but other stores that sell clothes remain open as long as they also sell food. Government landscapers good; private landscapers bad—unless they’re working on a government contract. That Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus must have very discriminating tastes for hosts.

I went to the grocery store the other day. It’s one of the things Washington State Governor Jay Inslee still allows me to do. I was standing near a display case when a gal looked at me, did a couple head-checks, and said, “I’m glad to see someone else without a mask. All these people…makes me feel like a criminal for not wearing one.”

I told her I’d listened to the experts, looked at the numbers, took the advice of those that made the most sense to me, and wearing a mask just didn’t seem necessary. She smiled and whispered, “Yeah, me too. And I’m a nurse.” Then I admitted, “I’m a retired police officer, so…” She smiled again and said, “We’re in good company.”

She was obviously feeling pressure from the virtue-signaling, intolerant passive-aggressive mob Seattle is so famous for. Very few people were wearing masks in a way that would help prevent particulate flow in or out. My wife, a retired firefighter, told me technicians had to individually fit them for their N95 masks for them to provide proper protection.

And most people were not wearing N95 masks, fitted or otherwise. Most simply wore porous pieces of cloth partially covering various parts of their faces. But scaring and shaming people into doing something that provides only an illusion of effectiveness is not the only thing about the arbitrary nature of governments’ abuse of power that we’re teaching our kids.

Unfortunately, we’re also showing our children how easily we supposedly liberty-loving, independent Americans will submit to tyranny. I don’t mean during the murky beginnings of a possible pandemic. Initially, no one knows what might happen with so much information and BS swirling within the fog. I mean, we are seeing blue state governors and a major political party choose to exploit a health scare that’s, happily, turned out to be considerably less lethal than “experts” had predicted.

We’ve since learned “experts’ models” were massively—to be kind—inaccurate. And now we’re seeing a health scare become increasingly politicized. Some leaders have become drunk on power. We must remind state and local governments—and our children—who’s supposed to be in charge in America: We the People. Even, maybe especially, during a state of emergency.

Okay, not all governors have been tyrants. Most have not. But some without a doubt have—again, to be kind—overstepped. How dangerous is it when politicians exacerbate a health crisis for political gain? Governor Jay Inslee has intimated opponents of his lockdown who want to get back to work don’t care if people die. Leftist parents, aided by a leftist media, teach children they should listen without question to political leaders: “You don’t want to kill people, do you?”

Well into this pandemic King County, Washington is now directing everyone to wear face masks—even while at home. I found two things that were odd (well, two will do, for now). First, the “Directive” does not mandate (likely protection from potential lawsuits) using a mask. People are “strongly encouraged” to wear masks.

It also directs people to “Use cloth face coverings. Do not use medical masks.” Regardless of scientific studies showing the dubious efficacy of cloth masks to prevent transmission, they issue this worthless edict as a scare and shaming tactic. Likely, hoping Seattleites will out-passive-aggressive each other into submission.

This edict, despite people like Daniel Horowitz writing articles that highlight information showing states with strict lockdowns have suffered more than states with less restrictive orders or with no lockdowns at all. Our kids are also learning something from the media failing to cover the pandemic from various legitimate perspectives, instead only reporting from one political perspective.

Early on, even Dr. Anthony Fauci told Americans why masks were virtually useless against the CCP virus. Incidentally, I just tried to provide readers a link to Dr. Fauci’s earlier quote encouraging people not to use face masks. But, instead, the social media Gestapo at YouTube provided me with this Orwellian advisory: “This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.” Dr. Fauci…you should be ashamed.

Recently, Dr. Fauci has apparently changed his mind. He wore a face mask at a press conference that Rush Limbaugh has labeled “symbols of fear.” Limbaugh described it as huge and looking like Dr. Fauci was wearing a muzzle (which has its own humorous implications).

You know what YouTube’s “Community Guidelines” teach kids? If you post information the gatekeepers don’t agree with, YouTube believes people are too dumb to determine its validity for themselves. YouTube reserves to itself the authority to tell the collective what qualifies as information and what amounts to “misinformation.” This crap teaches kids how to be un-American and pro-Chinese. Censorship has never been very American, though; it’s long been very communist Chinese.

People who live in the real world teach our kids that some people will never leave other people alone. Leftists are teaching them that lesson during this pandemic exploitation. In fact, ironically, socialists who say they want all people to be equal and to live in peace, have an ideology that does not allow them to leave people alone. And they teach their kids by example that it is okay to involve yourself in other people’s private business. Some governors and mayors, like all good Soviets, are even teaching our children it’s okay to rat out their neighbors.

Last week, my wife and I were planning a long walk. We wanted to include supporting a restaurant by buying some takeout for lunch. The first place we looked up had a sad notice displayed on their website: “Closed Permanently.” A couple days later, we wanted teriyaki from a place we’ve been going to for years. We couldn’t find the listing—they’re gone. These are real people, folks.

We’re teaching our children that a government entity can declare and then exploit an emergency, use erroneous “scientific” models, exaggerate estimated infections and deaths, and misreport people dying with the CCP virus as dying of the CCP virus. They can change the goals from flattening the curve to preserve hospital space, to needing to do more testing and “contact tracing,” to, now, finding a vaccine, all as they violate the Constitution in the name of public safety. Pay attention, children.

When the governor tells me, as an adult and retired police officer, I’m wrong to believe what I believe, and I should just do what I’m told, no matter how politically motivated his orders appear, I bristle. I’ve read the Constitution a time or two—he’s not the boss of me.

When a young person hears the same thing, without being able to put it in a more historical context, watching all the lefty bootlickers grovel, they might be tempted, pressured, to “trust” the government. Until the day comes when they feel the sting of betrayal, more experienced folks who live in blue states and cities have already felt that betrayal. If they don’t learn to trust their own instincts and learning rather than the edicts of folks who crave political power, what we used to know as America will become extinct.

We must keep in mind that what we say to our kids about this government overreach is not as important as what we do about it. Do we teach them it’s important to stand up for our constitutional rights, or do we teach them it’s okay to submit to a government official abusing his or her authority? Our young people are watching—and learning.