Living in Florida is like living in Covid Capital of the world. Of all the places that you would think, with its older population, which is more vulnerable it would be just the opposite? You would think that a State with a reputation of being a religious state would be looking out for the welfare of their children. Well, our Republican State Government is doing neither. DeSantis at every turn has done nothing but help the spread of this deadly virus. It is like he is paid by the virus and not by the people that he is suppose to protect. Is he getting a kickback from the funeral homes? The Republicans seem to do things for two reasons, money and power so he must be getting something for just letting people die. I know he wants to be president but letting your supporters die does not seem to be a good way of accomplishing that. Two things that I keep hearing is freedom of choice and personal responsibility.

The freedom of choice is an interesting argument. I am a freedom of choice type guy. Do I believe that you have the choice not to get the vaccine? You bet I do. No government should mandate that you have to get it. That is your choice. With that choice you must also accept the ramifications of that choice. Your freedom of choice does not supersede my freedom of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. If you choose not to get the vaccine, and your employer says you have to, you are free to find another job. Then either vaccinate or find another job. Your choice that I fully defend does not include getting the people that work around you sick. They deserve the right to work in a safe environment. You employer should not have to pay the liability for your freedom of choice. The state may protect your freedom of choice but they cannot make any business accept the liability for your freedom of choice.

I really pay attention to businesses that look out for my safety and business that do not. If I do not think that it is safe for me, whether they are complying with the law or not, I will not go back. That is my choice. If a business fails because they do not look out for the safety of its customers then they should fail. I wish we had proper contact tracing so we could identify the businesses that are putting people’s lives at risk. The public actually needs that information to make sound choices if we are going to defeat this virus. We should not be putting money over people’s lives but I will spend my money at a place where my safety is important to them.

I wear a mask whenever I am inside. That is my choice but I also feel it is my personal responsibility. Personal responsibility is one of DeSantis’s great lines or as I like to say one of his great lies. If people really took personal responsibility for their actions there would be no need for the police. I was speeding down McGregor this morning, if I was really personally responsible I should just notify the authorities and pay my fine. Lucky for me and my lead foot it does not work that way. Personal responsibility does not work and never has worked because too many of our population has no sense of responsibility. Hell, we had a President that didn’t think he was responsible for anything. I have heard people say that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. That is not how personal responsibility should work. Personal responsibility is being responsible all the time. Today too many of the people believe that they are only breaking a rule if they get caught. Let’s face it folks, we are not a very personal responsible type of society. People have died because people do not want to live up to their personal responsibility to their family and neighbors.

We are now seeing many local protests at school board meeting against mask mandates. What does that mean? To me it means that we have parents that think it is ok for children to get sick and in some cases die. Putting children in harm’s way used to be what I considered child abuse. Using children to make a political statement to me is also child abuse. You don’t want to have your child wear a mask then just home school your child. That is an easy choice. You have no right to put someone else’s child in jeopardy because you are anti-mask. Do not tell me that it is traumatizing the children. What is traumatizing the children is the monthly active shooter training that has to be done in our schools because of all the guns. What is an acceptable number of children’s death so your child does not have to wear a mask? 1, 10, 100, 1000. Masks really have nothing to do with this. Why do children have to die so you can worship at the feet of Pontus Pilot AKA Trump? We have lost our way. Children wearing masks have nothing to do about real freedom. If you think that, then you were not paying attention in history class.

DeSantis said that he wanted to see children smile and that is why he was against children wearing masks. Dead children do not smile Governor and mourning family and friends do not either.