I have now witnessed Governor DeSantis bully some High School Students in Tampa, Florida. Our dear Governor was at a High School presentation for a grant to develop education classes on Cyber Security. DeSantis walks into a staged news conference which was a self promoting news conference. He sees students wearing masks and said to the students “You do not have to wear those masks. Please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve gotta stop with this Covid theater.” First I will say that these kids are minors. He has no business talking to these children about this medical matter. These children have parents. It is the parent’s job, not DeSantis’s job, to talk to their children about masks and when they should be worn. If I was a parent I would be very pissed off. He had no right as a Governor to talk to anybody else’s child and I am sure if I would talk that way to his children he would tell me to butt out. WELL GOVENOR, BUTT OUT!  The only person that is creating Covid Theater here is you. Playing politics with children’s lives is wrong. By the way when he is done with his speech and figured he had made enough political points he just walk off and never acknowledges the children that were being used as a political props behind him. This is a man that does not care about Florida children. They are just pawns to be used and then discarded on his way to the White House. Heaven help us if he ever gets there.

DeSantis likes to talk about the free state of Florida. I live in Florida. I don’t see where it is freer than any other place here. We are the Sunshine State. When the ground hog saw his shadow and we were told that we would have eight more weeks of winter I said “ok”. It was 78 degrees outside and I could take eight more weeks of that. We have a great thing down here but politicians like DeSantis screw it up. Social Separate in Florida? No problem. I can be outdoors all day long enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. I have a little seventeen foot power boat that I can go out to Tarpon Bay and just drift enjoying a good book. Going out to eat. There are a ton of places that I could eat at that have outdoor seating. The people in Florida didn’t have to sacrifice much to remain safe. The problem is the Governor didn’t want the people of Florida to acknowledge anything.

When Trump was in office DeSantis was pretty hands off at first about Covid. To the point that Florida had no unified plan how to attack the virus. Many local municipalities were very frustrated from the lack of leadership coming out of Tallahassee. Many of the municipalities just began to create their own policies with Miami being much different than Naples and places Sanibel being different than Ft. Myers Beach. It was confusing but at least some people were trying to do something to save lives. The one person that didn’t want to save lives appeared to be our Governor. Why? I think it was because he wasn’t smart enough to come up with a workable solution so he came up with nothing. Small businesses suffered all over the State because of the virus. The Federal Government didn’t do enough to help the small businesses but I don’t think that the DeSantis did anything. I felt for the small businesses that were hurting from the virus. I think that with proper mandates many of them could have stayed open but there were three problems. One was the lack of knowledge of the virus in the beginning. A second was the political posturing out of Washington. The third was the lack of planning by the State of Florida.

Last year my wife was teaching in the Lee County Schools and I will tell you that the School district did a great job at keeping the schools open and safe while creating workable options for parents to choose for the safety of their children. This school year with DeSantis forcing his anti-covid rules and anti-mask rules on our education both students and teachers have died that didn’t have to in my opinion. His attitude that parents know what is best for their children is kind of a crappy argument. If you look at the child abuse numbers in the United States you will see that there are parents that do not know what is best for their children. I am a parent and a grandparent. I do not always know what is best for my children. I am dependent on the experts to give me information to keep my children safe. DeSantis is no expert. DeSantis does not surround himself with experts. In my opinion DeSantis suppresses data so we can’t make a proper decision. The protection of children is not something I think DeSantis thinks about or cares about.  

Organizations that are there no matter what party is in the White House are the organization I want to listen too. Like the CDC. Like Dr. Fauci. The experts. Medical expert’s advice will always change as we all learn more. How we treat Cancer is different than how we treated it yesterday. I don’t want politics in my medical decisions. I still wear a mask when I go to the store. No Governor that is just looking for votes is going to tell me I can’t. No Governor that wants to be President by trying to make the current President look bad is going to tell me I can’t. People are still dying from Covid. Children are still dying from Covid. Wearing a mask is not that big of a deal and if me wearing a mask saves just one life it is worth all the sacrifice. I was at the hospital for some pre-surgical testing. Guess what? Everyone one had to wear a mask. As Gomer Pyle would say “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise”. The Experts are still saying that wearing a mask saves lives. Everyone one has to make up their own minds about masks but no one should be able to put another’s life in jeopardy.  Don’t lie to someone else’s children about masks to win political points. Medical Science saved DeSantis’s wife who is now cancer free. Medical experts and Medical Science did that not any politician wanting to make political points. He can thank god all he wants but he better say thank you to all those Cancer Research Scientist and all the people in the medical field that were there to make his wife cancer free.

Ron DeSantis likes for call Florida the Free State of Florida. Freedom is just a hallow word to people like DeSantis and is used to get votes. We don’t live in a free state when you are suppressing women’s rights. We don’t live in a free state when you are forcing your religious views onto someone that does not believe the same as you. We don’t live in a free state when you suppress the vote. We don’t live in a free state when you can’t even talk about gays in the schools. We don’t live in a free state when you suppress racial education.  Ron DeSantis wants to be President. He is more interested in how he looks to the voters in places like Iowa than here in Florida. I don’t think that DeSantis gives a hoot about anyone’s real freedoms. He just wants to be President. Heaven help us if he ever gets there. He shouldn’t even be Governor.