A national crisis comes to Beaufort County | Eastern North Carolina Now

By:  Hood Richardson

It is not unusual for us to pretend all the bad things, the sins, the crooked politicians, the dumb politicians and those who are clueless in understanding the meaning of our truly unique Constitution are in some faraway place…like Washington, DC or Russia or China or Chicago.  Modern high speed communication technology brings all of the world’s ills to our doorstep.   Face it or not, we have some of all of the world’s sins right here in Beaufort County.

A serious mistake in understanding of our Constitution, science, decision making and common sense, happened in Beaufort County this week.  That was when the Beaufort County School Board voted 6 to 3 to mandate the wearing of masks by all students and staff in the system.  

One huge error in judgment came from not understanding science, and, yes, science does include mathematics.   Since January of 2020  (20 months) we have had 104 deaths attributable to the Covid 19 Virus.  That is the maximum because there are some people who believe normal influenza may be responsible for some deaths and probably many more of the 104 and other complicating health conditions. 

Almost all who died had at least one co-morbidity.  That is, another serious life threatening illness.  Age is a huge factor, and it appears that age by itself could be a co morbidity.  It is a fact that those under 12 years of age are not recommended to have the vaccine.  Their death rate approaches zero but it does not get to zero because of co morbidities.

Here are the Beaufort County facts as of August 13, 2021.  One hundred four people have died. There have been 5,039 documented cases.  There are probably a lot more.  The population of Beaufort County is 47,000 people. The average age at death is 77.2 years. 

A fact:  Until now all pandemics in history have been handled by the quarantine of those infected.  Those at risk have always had the right to self quarantine and take any measures they feel appropriate to protect themselves. This is the first lockdown in history and the subsequent seizing of power by the Democrats.

Nowhere in the  Constitution of the United States or in the Federal or state statutes is permission granted for any government official or government body (a school board)  to mandate the use of personal protective equipment or the behavior of any person or class of people as a whole in order to receive services from a public institution. 

Decision making requires the individuals making the decision to apply common sense.  All the School Board members had to do in making the decision on masks was to look around.  Some examples of common sense to be considered are:  Is the hospital full of covid patients?  Are the funeral homes busy with covid deaths?  How many cases in children are known?  How many children are in the hospital with covid.   How many adults have it?  There is not a commonsense “yes” answer to any of these questions.  But the practical science of it all is that there is very little risk to those under 18 years of age (school age).  Arguably, there may be a greater threat to our young people from traffic accidents than Covid.  Thus, applying the School Board’s reasoning those children should stay home rather than get out on the highway.

Now we come to the Constitution.  Here we are talking about the continued illegal seizing of power.  The false belief among those who rule us that they are empowered to save us from ourselves.   This decision tears down the great American principle that we as individuals have personal freedoms and that all those rights not specifically controlled by law are ours as individuals.

The school board members who advocated for requiring masks repeatedly said they were trying to keep students safe.  That is nonsense.  Masks do not prevent Covid.  In fact, there is a growing body of research that masks do more harm, health wise, than they do good. 

But more importantly, what gives a school board member the right to tell a parent their child must wear a mask?  That is, if a government official is going to impose such infringement on students’ rights they must have a compelling reason, and that means it must be backed by science and reasonably constructed to curtail constitutional infringements to the maximum extent necessary to accomplish the stated purpose.  Thus, the argument that masks keep students safe requires substantial evidence backed by science that they work.  Neither the Superintendent, in making his recommendation, nor any member who advocated for masks offered even one study or any science to support the efficacy of masks.  Understandably so, because such evidence does not exist.  It is ridiculous that they would make such an arbitrary and capricious decision, affecting all students and staff.  And that says nothing about those who have recovered from Covid and those who are fully vaccinated.

Let’s just tell it like it is.  Every one of these six school board members who voted to require masks substituted their opinion for the parents’ judgment.  We have not given them the authority to do that and we should not stand for any government official usurping parental rights such as this.

Then there is the fear and confusion factor.  I believe those who ignored the above principles are ruled by social media and are puppets of the television hyenas.   I do not participate in social media, but what I have seen is terrible for truth and accuracy.  Television is just as bad.  A “yes” to any one of the principles cited above should have brought them to a “no”vote.  That is, common sense, knowledge of our founding constitutional principles and examination of covid science  should have brought reasonable people to a “no” vote.

Could those who voted “yes” have been trying save us from the covid virus.  Here is another fact, it is impossible to save the public from the covid.  All viruses have to run thru enough of the population to establish herd immunity.  We can only slow down the rate that the virus goes thru the population. 

It is possible for a person to avoid the virus sickness by self quarantining, building up their immune system, and taking the vaccine.  Masks might contribute some to the avoidance but sooner or later everyone will come into contact with it and if parents want their child to wear a mask the school should accommodate that. 

The school board made a bad decision that will haunt them on election day.  Those who voted for the mask mandate are: Democrat E C Peed, Democrat Eltha Both, Republican Michael Bilbro, Republican Terry Draper, Republican Terry Williams, and Republican Carolyn Walker.  Those who voted against mandating masks are: Republican Butch Oliver,  Democrat Mac  Hodges, Republican T W Allen.

The worst error made by those who voted for masks is failure to understand our Constitution, the personal freedom it gives us and that there is no law that allows them to make this decision.  They allowed themselves to be influenced by the press corps and the false information they continually spew to cause confusion and hysteria.  Will they use common sense to make a better decision next time?