A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste
“Moms for Liberty”. It’s the latest result of the poisoning of millions of American minds through continuous dosing of toxic disinformation and outright lying. Founded by a Florida women, co-founder Tina Descovich is calling on its 56,000 members to disrupt school board meetings all over the country to protest not only mask mandates and disease mitigation, but also curriculum content including which words to learn how to spell and pictures in science books. She also calls on children to rip the masks off of other children.
Tactics used by this group include not only shouting and jeering during school board meetings but also harassing school board members in their homes, filing false police reports, and doxxing, the same tactics used by gun nuts all over the country against those who call for common sense gun laws.
As long as law enforcement and the courts look the other way on right wing terrorists, these tactics will continue. These terrorists, inspired by the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th won’t stop until they see a large group of these domestic terrorists go to jail for years, not months. Local police must also stop their nonsense at meetings and prosecute menacing and personal threats. If we are to have any chance of saving our democracy, groups like Moms for Liberty must be met with strong opposition and prosecution for their tactics.
There were numerous members of law enforcement officers and military veterans in the 1-6 coup mob at the Capital, as well as being members of militia groups like The Three Percenters and Oath Keepers. Will such “law enforcement” have much desire to not “look the other way” to groups like Moms for Liberty?
1Floriduh, eh? Where these budding terrorists figure they can hide behind Ron D’oh Santis. Sadly there are smaller pockets of wingnuts of the same ilk in every state. They may not “enjoy” the protection of the various governors in the bluer states, but wherever the Qcumbers roam there are the Oaf KKKreeper sheriffs and other LE who are refusing to do their damn jobs.
Ours courts? Look no further than the Bundys in NV. Not in jail after trial. Go figure. Had they used counterfeit chips in a casino, they’d be buried in the desert. Or black? Unfortunately the purple state isn’t as blue as we’d like it to be.
2I doubt lessons learned from the Tea Party experience will be brought back as relevant, but the standard there became accepting spoken and even yelled objections within the bounds of more structured public comment segments of meetings, elected officials being yelled at on (or from) public property, and threats get assessed to figure out if they are simply general invective or if they contain incitement to illegal actions (“fighting words”). Unfortunately, staff and activists ought to be trained to not react to shouts (First Amendment issues for me), but as soon as one of them or any of their property is touched, someone should be recording and police should be called. Legal folks can chime in on what charges can result — and of course, determined by more impartial consideration by prosecutors and judges.
As for encouraging students to assault other students: yanking off a student’s mask ought to be handled as if there was interference with taking medication or ripping off a shirt. Public school was a long time ago for me, but I do recall some kids “borrowing” a friend’s wheelchair while he was at his student desk. First time resulted in school punishments; second time was one of the few occasions I can recall when police were called to come to the school. Those kids wound up with “marks on their permanent record” — within the school and with the legal system.
3I cannot imagine encouraging children to assault other children. We had some kids in our classes through the years with medical issues and I remember classmates being universally kind to, and careful around, them.
4rip the masks off…
shouting and jeering…
harassing…
false police reports…
If students were to take these actions in a classroom, or against other students, or in their classwork, they’d be sent to the principal’s office. Or suspended. Or given an F. Because it’s not considered acceptable behavior. But parents acting out at a school board meeting, setting a bad example for their kids and neighbors? Why let them get away with it? They’d be asked to leave if they pulled those stunts in a movie theater, at a play, or especially if they ran onto a football field and interrupted a game.
5I thought we were sort of insulated from the worst of it up here in my azure blue state. Yeah, some crazy refused to mask at a school board meeting (he eventually left) and a few “Unmask our Kids” signs here and there (like the kids really care). But yesterday a group of parents with a F%#k Biden” sign were loudly yelling same at a PRE-SCHOOL where the president was speaking. They’re completely off the rails.
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