Summer Blockbuster: Fear and Deception, the Sequel
As Pritzker stars in latest politically-motivated fear campaign, an opportunity for state education leaders to step up and lead from the front
Earlier this week, Governor J.B. Pritzker emerged from a 10-day vacation for a public appearance.
Before speaking at a podium in the North Lawndale section of Chicago, what was Pritzker wearing?
A mask.
When asked by a reporter why the face covering, going against his own recommended guidance, he replied, “out of an abundance of caution.”
Oh, brother. Here we go again.
And by the way, what he said about “caution?” That’s a lie.
It has nothing to do with caution and has everything to do with politics. As usual.
Like summer jean shorts on dads (jorts!) the Covid fear campaign is making a comeback.
That campaign had started well before Pritzker’s disingenuous stunt on Monday. The Governor is just performing optics muscle for his benefactor, President Biden, whom is falling short of a July 4 goal of having 70% of Americans vaccinated.
Pritzker is a loyal solider though, with Illinois one of the states to have reached the 70% vaxed mark.
But never one to let a doom merchanting opportunity go to waste, all this week, Pritzker has repeated the latest apocalyptic talking points we’ve been hearing for the past couple of weeks from Biden and his Frankenstein of Fear, Dr. Fauci.
Wrote the Sun-Times:
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday urged unvaccinated Illinoisans to roll up their sleeves and get the shots, warning of a “growing presence” of a highly contagious COVID-19 variant that he and the state’s public health officials expect to dominate cases statewide by the fall.
Wearing a face mask before he spoke, Pritzker made his plea at an unrelated news conference on the West Side, telling residents not to let their guard down in the face of the expected spread of the Delta variant in Illinois.
“The lessons here at home and across the world are a harbinger of what could happen here, particularly in low vaccinated areas, if we don’t see a higher uptake of the vaccine across Illinois,” Pritzker said.
At a Tuesday press gathering in Springfield, Pritzker said this, according to Fox2Now:
This virus is very much present, infecting people, hospitalizing some and tragically, killing others every day. Israel, which has led the world in vaccinations has reinstated its indoor mask mandate, and other mitigations in light of fully vaccinated adults getting infected with the Delta variant
Remember the time, pre-Covid, when pop culture moments dominated small talk chatter?
Like the “Game of Thrones” final season. Or the musical “Hamilton.” Remember the “Ice Bucket Challenge?”
The past 16 months, it’s all Covid.
First, the reactionary inquiries—did you get tested? What’s this about antibodies? Are your kids going remote for school? What about work?
Since the beginning of the year, the more we’ve learned about Covid, it’s shifted to preventative queries, almost 100 percent about the vaccine—did you take it? You’re not going to take it? One dose or two?
And that should be it. Done. Over. Get back to small talking about Britney Spears’ weird family drama and whether Justin Fields can get the Bears to the Super Bowl.
Because the reality is this—it’s time to stop talking about Covid! Everything should be open. No masks, no testing, no restrictions. Getting dosed with a COVID-19 vaccine shot, just like masking, is a personal choice. Opt in, opt out.
But politicians like Pritzker, with willing and able corporate media taking dictation and spitting it back out, won’t let it go. They disassociate cause and effect and govern by absolute rule. The reason? Fear is a commodity. It sells like hotcakes at a Waffle House after midnight.
There are millions of people in this country who suffer from lingering symptoms of Fauciism Disease (is there a vaccine for that?), an anxiety disorder caused by watching Dr. Fauci on every television show and every podcast every five minutes since March 2020.
That mass hysteria is making a comeback. Pritzker is once again back to his old tricks and there are many in this state lapping it up.
What does this mean for Illinois and schools?
It means every tension point heading into the fall—testing, quarantines, masking—is more likely to fall on the side of heavy-handedness.
Every time Pritzker wears a mask indoors or outdoors (defying his own recommendation) and spouts about the “Delta variant” in some foreign continent, he’s virtue signaling education leaders to fall in line.
Will they this time? There are signs of pushback.
Last week, The Kerr Report was first to report about an open letter signed by a group of superintendents as part of LUDA, or the Large Unit District Association.
A few other letters have since been made public, one from another organization of state superintendents and another from District 95 in Lake Zurich. The D95 letter included signatures from all seven board of education members.
The appeal in the letters is the same—requesting updated guidance from the state on how to re-open schools in August. Pritzker and the Illinois State Board of Education, the state’s educational agency, have yet to respond. The expectation now for guidance is sometime in mid-July. The additional time presents an opportunity for superintendents.
The tone of the documents—asking rather than dictating—is politically prudent. I don’t think begging for forgiveness rather than asking for permission, as some school districts have done in other states, will be effective against Pritzker. Probably because he was born privileged and can act like a bully boy without ever having to throw an actual punch, he doesn’t like being challenged and is a punitive man. He has shown that time and time again during Covid and most recently, used ISBE to shake down a low enrollment district located in the southeastern part of the state (Red Hill in Bridgeport) for not complying with a mask “mandate.”
I understand the potential legal landmine a superintendent would potentially step into by recommending to a school board that their district act independently from public heath guidance. I may not personally agree with it, but I’m not in charge of a school district. Fair enough.
But there needs to be more of a public relations strategy apart from words on a document and impersonal signatures.
Yes, it’s good to know it will be impractical to open doors to full time in-person schooling under the current 3 ft/6 ft misalignment, as explained in the letters. Sure, it makes sense to have social distancing, quarantining and masking policies match that of Phase 5.
But what are superintendents really saying? That the current policies are not best for kids?
OK, if so, then say it. Stop with the passive/aggressive messaging. Don’t just plead for “guidance,” explain why it matters.
Any personalized, human context is not coming across in the letters.
It didn’t come across in June board meetings.
D95 (Lake Zurich) superintendent Dr. Kelley Gallt wrote in her letter how “masking may be best implemented as a choice.” That sentence reveals a glimmer of rapport with her constituents, almost all of whom oppose students wearing masks in schools.
Tuesday night, a group of superintendents became active on Twitter and hatched a hashtag: #MakeItLocalIL.
Another superintendent, Jennifer Garrison of VCUSD #203 (Vandalia, IL, located about an hour northeast of St. Louis) said this about the intention of the hashtag:
Local control is worth advocating for, absolutely. And a social media campaign is a start. But more is needed, more strategic public communication and with more forward propulsion than is often seen with large bureaucracies like public education.
Because if superintendents (and school boards) don’t get out in front of this, come later this month, they will be on the defense once again at open (not virtual) BOE meetings with frustrated parents standing behind podiums asking why they aren’t fighting for their kids.
In Springfield, Chicagoland and all over the state and country, the summer fear campaign is well under way. We can’t stop it. Pritzker’s gonna Pritzker, Fauci’s gonna Fauci. When they speak, we’ll hear emotion elevated over logic, ideology subjugating reason.
It’s never about health and safety as they claim.
It’s always politics.
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Remember "two weeks to flatten the curve." The lies pile up. Push back people!