UNITED STATES – Sunday, October 10 an American Airlines pilot came forward with a video to the public stating that his job was at risk of being taken should he reject the COVID 19 vaccination.
He started the video informing viewers of his 18 years of dedication to being an airline pilot and is now facing an ultimatum like millions of other Americans who have been given the same ultimatum, get vaccinated or you’re out of a job.
He said, “Whether you believe vaccination is the right thing to do or not, the situation goes far beyond health. We the American people have fought for freedom for 257 years. We go around the world spreading ideas of freedom and democracy. We help other countries and people fight for their freedoms while ours are being stripped away.”
Since March of 2020, mandates, rules, propaganda, and peer pressure to get the vaccination has become the norm. If you told an American in March of 2020 how America would look today, less than two years later, they would think you were crazy.
Think back to over 500 days ago when we were told we would be in a lockdown. Remember how crazy all of us thought it was? Panic, fear, confusion but at the same, we trusted our leaders. We trusted the government and their demands to listen to these rules that seemed to be contributing to the overall wellbeing of our country. But we thought then, it’s just 15 days… how bad can it be?
Almost two years later, I ask you this – how much of your life are you willing to give up? How many of your rights are you willing to abandon because you are scared of a few politicians who have shown blatant opposition to their own rules whether it was Barack Obama hosting a party without requirement of a mask in his multimillion-dollar home in Martha’s Vineyard or Governor Gavin Newsom who sent his own child to a camp where the mask requirement was a choice. I understand the day-to-day struggle of wanting to just get your coffee creamer without worrying about some stranger confronting you for practicing your rights because in the moment it seems easier to conform. It seems easier to just give in.
In this case, a mandate is a law with a bow on it. In my hometown of Los Angeles, you can’t get a job, keep your job, see your family overseas, eat at a restaurant and shortly coming, shop in a store or go to school without proof of double vaccination and a mask over your face. A booster shot is on the rise, and I think you know what that means. Get the third shot or else.
You may be reading this thinking, you don’t mind giving up your freedom of choice in this case, because vaccinations are in fact helpful to stopping the spread of this deadly disease, but what about when you’re told to do something you don’t agree with? Will you do it then? Probably. Because (and I mean this in the most LA voice ever) you LITERALLY will not have a life.
This is America. We have rights and we have freedom so maybe we should start acting like our old selves back in 2019. I miss being able to go into a store without a mask on because although most people in LA aren’t that friendly, at least I didn’t have to worry about them hating me off the bat for my decision to take a mask off.
In Los Angeles alone, there are over ten million people and when I go to a grocery store, I am the crazy one without the mask on. I have argued with my neighbors more today than ever because politicians can’t take responsibility for their shortcomings in making this a functioning city without blaming us first. Give up more control so that YOU can be safe and if you see your neighbor disobey, then YOU put them in check. It has become my responsibility to make sure you are obeying covid mandates? No, thank you. Your freedom of choice is none of my business and while we’re at it, please don’t tell me what to do in a Trader Joes at 8pm on a Tuesday. Don’t you see, we are becoming enemies with our own people.
President Biden recently boasted about how America is finally out of war with the middle east. The truth is, yes we did abruptly pull ourselves out of a war, but at home, we are at war with each other.
With less than 600 children who have died because of COVID 19 total since the beginning of this pandemic, why would it make any logical sense to build policy in LA such as mandatory vaccination plus a mask around such a small percentage of deaths? More children have died from pneumonia, but we haven’t built a policy around that have we?
Call me selfish, inconsiderate, or anything else your compliant heart desires, but I can’t sit here and say that with 70 percent of Los Angeles being fully vaccinated and the 7-day rolling average death rate being 8 to date with a city of over 10 million that I think this is really about taking care of people. This is strictly politics.
The pilot spoke about “Shifting baseline Syndrome” which is a gradual acceptance of new norms. In less than two years we have heard the following:
Stay at home for 15 days, don’t socialize with people, don’t attend family holidays, skip the funeral of your grandmother, don’t go to the hospital to see your newborn child, keep children home from school, stay 6 feet away from others, get vaccinated, get vaccinated again, wait, get vaccinated one more time and remember to keep that mask on and keep wearing it until we decide it’s acceptable to take it off.
We are now on year two of “slowing the spread” and deserting life as it passes us by because this is the norm. We are no longer shocked by anything. We like being told what to do. We like the rules and mandates because we are brainwashed into thinking that “We are in this together” and anyone who rejects that notion is selfish or a “Trump supporter” whatever the f*ck that means.
I remember missing my life so much those first two weeks of quarantine sitting in my West Hollywood apartment with my best friend. We knew we’d survive it but it seemed so debilitating, so unamerican to be told we had to do this or else. Now when we hear a new mandate like “show me your vax card before you enter the bar,” we don’t even flinch.
As the American Airlines rep said, “if we do not stand up for our freedom of choice, we are doing a disservice to the people who have fought and bled for the very freedoms we enjoy.” He went on to say, “You may support the vaccine mandates because they fall in line with your current beliefs but if we let this happen now, there will be a day when what you’re told what to do will not fall in line with your beliefs. If we don’t fight back in one voice, soon we could be told where to live, what job we will do, what religion to believe and how many children we can have.”
These are the least United States of America that I’ve ever seen. Come home America and let freedom ring.
