Back To School

Schools in North Carolina have been returning to the classroom but not without a lot of fuss and bother. 

In each of the 100 counties in North Carolina, school boards have struggled with the question of whether to mask or not to mask.

It should not be a struggle in that in the god damn pandemic is still a thing and the delta variant is making things worse, it seems asking kids and teachers crowding to classrooms to wear a mask would be a no brainer.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports cases among children have risen fivefold over the past month amid the surge of the delta variant. 

More than 200,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 just last week. 

But nonetheless, the question of whether to mask or not to mask was a struggle.  

The nut cases came out in force to school board meetings to make the case that masks are an infringement of freedom and liberty and is against what it means to be "Merican!"  

The struggle played out 100 times and 100 different school boards came to different results. 

Some school boards deferred to caution and science and said masks were mandatory. 

Others muddied the water with some masks requirements in some cases depending on the weather or if Mercury was in retrograde or some shit like that.  

Other boards were defiant of the risks to the children in their care said "oh hell no" to masks in any shape and form.

I saw one of those meetings on the news as the crowd cheered.

I noticed a pattern among the 100 counties in North Carolina. The counties with a strong metro/urban center tended towards mask mandates.  

The counties that are mostly rural resisted masks. 

So guess where the worst COVID-19 is happening? 

Some of the school boards in those counties have slunk back into session and now say masks are required, even while being shouted down by angry morons protesting this assault on freedom and liberty. 

Never mind children are sick and dying.

Still, our young people are back in school, trying to make the best of it, living with the fear that if COVID-19 doesn't kill them, a bullet might. 

As happened yesterday.

Up the road from our house in Winston-Salem, there was gun violence at Mt. Tabor High School, leaving one student dead. 

I suppose we could try to do something protect our children from guns.

But we would be shouted down by those defending freedom and liberty. 

Our children are at risk from disease, violence and worst of all, sheer stupidity.