A PUBLIC LETTER TO MY SCHOOL BOARD

Dear School Board:

As I write this correspondence, I cannot help feeling as if we are living in a wicked amalgam of George Orwell’s 1984, Animal Farm and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.  I use the word wicked because the world we are living in is not fiction.  Of course, you will disagree, shrouding your policies in claims of public health and safety, spouting “If we can save just one life,” and “it’s for the greater good,” and “we are following directives from the experts.”  If there is any intelligence left in the world, these phrases should be akin to fingernails on a chalkboard.  The “if we can save just one life” policy would justify the elimination of automobiles, beaches, swing sets, sports and just about everything we not only enjoy, but need.  “It’s for the greater good,” argument is the first play in the playbook of Carl Marx and despots throughout history.  “Following the directives from the experts,” is a Nuremberg Defense.  And yet, in one form or another, the justifications for your policy are founded upon these assertions. 

Need I remind you that “experts” have claimed the earth to be flat, leeches a necessary tool of medicine, cigarettes healthy, and cocaine not addictive.  The point I am making is that one is not an expert and certainly not necessarily correct simply because one is appointed as an expert.  It is imperative to employ critical thinking rather than being deferential to science driven by emotion, politics and power.  As an American, it is important to include our American principles in our analysis. 

There are those who characterize the current state of affairs in education as the new schooling, purposely created in order to advance the conspiracy called Covid-19.  They claim it is being used to weaken the minds of the young and innocent and to alter future generations so that they cannot naturally protect themselves from biological, viral and bacterial infection and disease; that it is designed to build a society of dependent drones.   

Your policies, certainly your dialogue, provide no counter-argument for these characterizations. As I listen to your talking points, endure the technological presentations of mechanical solutions, and witness you genuflect to a false premise, I question whether all is lost, that the end is not near, it is in fact here. 

We have witnessed mass unmasked protests on a daily basis in our nation.  We have not witnessed mass death subsequent to the protests.  We have witnessed mass unmasked gatherings, such as the George Floyd funeral, without a subsequent mass death.  We have not a single example of mass gatherings leading to mass death with one exception, nursing homes where covid-positive people were inserted, causing the spread of the infection to individuals with co-morbid ailments.  And yet, your policies are based on the false premise that children going to school in a normal fashion is irresponsible and deadly.  If we save just one life, right?  Well, apparently not.  Suicide rates, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, and mental illness have all increased substantially since the pandemic mentality was adopted.  The cure has caused death. 

            Admittedly, the pandemic has caused death, but nowhere near as much as is claimed. The definition of dying from covid, as stated by Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Health explained, “. . . means, at the time of death, it was a covid positive diagnosis.  That means, that if you were in hospice and had already been given a few weeks to live, and then you were found to have covid, that would be counted as a covid death.  It means, technically even if you died of a clear alternative cause, but you had covid at the same time, it’s still listed as a covid death.”  Medical examiners throughout the country use the same definition.  Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator stated, “if someone dies with covid-19, we are counting that as a covid-19 death.”  She also stated all deaths of patients with linkage to covid-19 are now classified as “covid-19 deaths regardless of cause or under lying health issues that could have contributed to loss of life.”  The State of New York is classifying Corona virus deaths even when post-mortem tests are negative basing the diagnosis on symptoms similar to the seasonal flu.  People who have died in suicides and auto accidents are being categorized as covid deaths.  The Center for Disease Control on March 24^th expanded the definition of a covid death to include probable cause which can include cases without laboratory confirmation.  There is not a shred of evidence that the covid-19 death count is accurate or legitimately representative of the threat of covid-19. 

Also of concern, the cases are being over stated.  Non-medical personnel are being used to classify covid-19 cases.  Contacts traced to a COVID-19 positive result are being counted as COVID-19 positive without testing.  Clearly, the establishment wants high numbers to justify diminished freedom, both personal and in enterprise.

And yet, the draconian policies, sold through fear, faux concern and falsehoods, continue to flow. 

I question as to why our School Board is proposing more restrictive policies than the other three public schools in the County?  If our school board is so correct, shouldn’t we be protesting at the other schools because the other schools’ relatively laxed policies regarding COVID-19 are going to be death camps for children?  And why aren’t we reading about mass graves in Sweden?  Sweden did little if anything to fight COVID-19.  Swedish children went to school.  Shouldn’t all of Sweden be dead or digging graves if they’re not dead, yet?

They should – unless the COVID-19 crisis is a crisis of government and leadership and not a crisis of public health.  Unless it is based upon a false premise, which it is.  How do we know that?  Because the “experts” have told us.  They’ve admitted, over and over again, the numbers are incorrect.  But why let facts get in the way?  Why let a good crisis go to waste?  Sure, folks have died and that’s sad.  When isn’t death sad?   But sadness is not a logical basis for policy.  Facts and principles are the bases for policy.  Our school board is betraying the American principles of personal individual responsibility.  What they should be doing is opening the school without any restriction other than a prohibition on any consequence for wearing a mask and allow children who are symptomatic to be required to stay home.  That’s it.  A resolution could be drafted of this sort in about three minutes.  They should allow parents to decide how safe they want their children to be when it comes to COVID-19, recognizing that there will be some individuals who will be thoughtless and selfish by attending school while symptomatic.  Aren’t we always wary and cautious of bad people?  Is selfish behavior a novel event in humanity?  Not at all.  Dealing with the selfish folks is a cost of freedom, a cost that true Americans gladly pay. 

Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  He was correct.

George Orwell said, “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.”  He was correct, too.

Based upon the proposed policies of the Gibraltar School Board we have enrolled our son in a different school, one that is not so deferential to masked tyranny.  It is a sad decision because our oldest son will remain at Gibraltar.  He only does so because, other than home-schooling, we are without options within the county.  The change of enrollment is not an easy move for our son.  Thanks to the teachers, he had an exceptional learning environment.  We were proud of Gibraltar, thankful to be involved in such an educational community.  Not so much anymore.  We will still support the teachers and students.  We will continue to attend events,if there are any.  However, the Board’s actions, in concert with the Administration, are unacceptable.  Therefore, we have chosen, at least for one of our children, to not accept them until things return to normal. 

I am praying (not a metaphor) for the Board and Administration to find the courage to see the error of their ways.  Your deference to fear, allegiance to false premises, purposeful ignorance of facts and science and your desire to accommodate evil policy cloaked in good intentions will be much more costly than a virus.  History tells us so. 

Sincerely and God Bless you,

Brett Reetz