118598
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

“Halfway Through, The Masks Came Off”: Spreading the Scepticism in Alabama

by Bill Rice, Jr.
6 June 2022 7:22 PM

Several months ago, I was told that our local School Board was having a meeting and that some parents were going to show up and protest against the extension of the mask mandates.

I said, “Okay, I’m in.” Enough with all this posting at the Daily Sceptic. I’ll actually practice what I preach and speak truth to power – even if it was through a mask and people probably couldn’t understand me.

Well, sure enough, I was the only mask protestor who showed up. I’d knocked out a a little speech, using some of the arguments I make in my posts at the Daily Sceptic. Alas, I was told by the School Board secretary that I only had three minutes to talk.

“But I’m the only one here. Can’t I get four minutes?” I asked.

Nyet.

I wish I could say I wowed my audience with my Churchillian oratory. In fact, I made a fool of myself. My excuse was that I was discombobulated by Nurse Ratched (a.k.a., the Board secretary) hollering out “One minute!” as she looked at her stop watch. Then “Two minutes!” The Board was serious about that time limit. Rules are rules after all.

I should have just said, “Screw it,” but instead I simply stopped in mid sentence when my 180 seconds had expired, put my unfinished speech in my pocket and went home.

“How did it go?” my wife asked. “Ah, great,” I said. “Looks like you’ll be wearing your mask for a couple more months.”

Here I should note that my wife teaches high school English in this same school system. We have a six year-old and a 10 year-old, who would also be wearing these germ-spreaders for a couple more months.

Skip forward a couple months and, lo and behold, I learned that I’d have to attend another school board meeting. This was because my wife has just been named “Teacher of the Year” at her school.

As it would not be good if the husband of the Teacher of the Year was a Mask Non-Conformist, I begrudgingly put on a mask when I entered the school board building.

As it turns out, the Board was in Executive Session, so all the guests had to sit in the lobby before the meeting proper commenced. While twiddling my thumbs, I couldn’t help but notice that half the principals and school system employees who have to attend these meetings were not wearing their masks.

My mask was in its usual place – on my chin – when we finally got called into the meeting. Again, I saw the same school board members, Superintendent of Education and the Board secretary – all safely masked up. Not wishing to embarrass my wife, I pulled my mask all the way over my lower lip.

My wife and two other teachers got their certificates for being Teachers of the Year, and then something strange happened. The board and Superintendent wanted to have pictures made with the honorees. For some reason, everyone pulled their masks off for the photo shoot.

It took all the willpower I could summon to not scream out, “Citizen’s arrest! Citizen’s arrest!”

I’d brought my two small children to the event and I almost told them, “Quick. Get out of the building. Danger!”

Instead, I just sat there bemused. My bemusement grew, when after the photo shoot, the board members returned to their board tables and continued the meeting – sans masks.

Heck, maybe the board members had listened to my spill three months earlier; maybe my oration had helped them overcome their fears. Maybe I’d done some good after all.

I also had this thought: Maybe the leaders of this school system didn’t really believe all the ‘settled science’ they’d mandated for thousands of students and hundreds of teachers, who had to wear those stupid things seven hours every day for two-plus years.

I don’t know how my wife became Teacher of the Year when she probably couldn’t breathe half the time she was conjugating verbs, or teaching students Orwell’s 1984.

Actually, my wife didn’t teach Orwell’s novel, which I think is now banned. Suffice it to say, a literature teacher in 2022 does not become Teacher of the Year by teaching 1984.

A few weeks later, the School Board finally rescinded the mask mandate. Just like no teacher or student ever got a serious case of Covid with the masks, nobody has had a serious case post masks.

And I still hold the distinction of being the only parent in Troy, Alabama who spoke out against the masks. True, ’twas a terrible speech, but I muffled my way through it.

And the School Board didn’t hold it against me as they later honored my sweet wife, who really deserves a Wife-of-the-Year certificate for putting up with a husband who keeps trying to spread a little scepticism.

Tags: AmericaChildrenFace MasksMask MandatesSchools

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

‘Net Zero’ is Driving Inflation to Dangerous Levels and Must Be Abandoned to Avert Economic Collapse

Next Post

Spare Us the Lectures on Climate Change, Prince William

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

9 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

 

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About Caroline Dinenage’s Power Grab, Rishi Becoming a Proper Conservative and Justin Trudeau’s Confusion About Nazis

by Will Jones
26 September 2023
9

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

Horrendous Number of Eagle Deaths From Wind Farms

1 October 2023
by Chris Morrison

News Round-Up

1 October 2023
by Will Jones

mRNA Vaccines Must Be Banned Once and For All

1 October 2023
by Dr Angus Dalgleish

Drivers Shocked as Insurers Quote Over £5,000 for Electric Vehicles – if They Insure Them at All

30 September 2023
by Will Jones

Reverend Calvin Robinson Wins Settlement Over Royal Academy of Dance Dismissal Due to Opposition to Drag Queen Storytelling

1 October 2023
by Richard Eldred

News Round-Up

59

Kemi Badenoch: We Can’t Bankrupt Ourselves Getting to Net Zero

35

Horrendous Number of Eagle Deaths From Wind Farms

26

mRNA Vaccines Must Be Banned Once and For All

34

Drivers Shocked as Insurers Quote Over £5,000 for Electric Vehicles – if They Insure Them at All

42

mRNA Vaccines Must Be Banned Once and For All

1 October 2023
by Dr Angus Dalgleish

Horrendous Number of Eagle Deaths From Wind Farms

1 October 2023
by Chris Morrison

Covid Care Home “Carnage” Exposed in New Study

30 September 2023
by Dr Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson

Scott Gottlieb and the CIA’s Takeover of America’s Pandemic Response

30 September 2023
by Dr Robert Malone
harries.jpg

The Covid Backpedalling Race Hots Up

29 September 2023
by Dr Tom Jefferson

POSTS BY DATE

June 2022
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May   Jul »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment