Witnessing Legal Child Abuse

 

Today was one of those miserable days in Washington D.C. where you wonder what on Earth those who settled this actual swamp were thinking placing our nation’s capital city here. Honestly, just truly disgusting in every way, completely and utterly unbearable to be outside for more than five minutes at a time. Just as long as it takes to get from your car to the door of your destination, that’s how long you wanted to stay outside today in the D.C. area. Don’t take my word for it, this is what our local weather service reported this evening before those promised thunderstorms rolled through:

And so, imagine my shock, disgust, and horror when I pulled up at a doctor’s appointment today and saw the next-door occupational therapy office doing a “field day” for their clients. These clients are children and teens with profound disabilities, almost none of whom can walk on their own. They were doing outdoor events without their walkers, and assistants were helping clients walk from one area to another in the competition.

It was honestly too hot a day for this kind of activity in my opinion anyway, but then I noticed, to my absolute horror and disgust, that half of the clients were in masks. I even saw the youngest client, perhaps all of nine years old, pull her mask down to breathe, whereupon the woman assisting her (donning a KN95 herself) pulled the child’s mask back over her face.

I live in one of the most vaccinated counties in America.

As a result, we are also dominating on case rates; let alone hospitalizations and deaths. I don’t remember the last time in the previous few weeks we’ve reported on our county dashboard a day where more than ten new cases have been reported. If you’re going to get COVID at this point, you practically have to go looking for it. And the likelihood of getting it outside from a child? The odds are so astronomically low they’re impossible to even fathom.

And yet, they had these kids outside while the heat index was at 98 degrees, running them around under masks. What I witnessed today was nothing short of child abuse. I sat in my car when I got to my destination and when I left an hour later watching the scene, taking pictures (which I won’t publish here, for the sake of the privacy of those children involved). I couldn’t believe my eyes and wracked my brain trying to think about what to do, what to say if anything. I decided on nothing, because this is what the CDC and county officials who follow their advice have wrought. This, which would have once been rightly considered child abuse, is now just an acceptable practice. We’ve normalized abusing children for the sake of… what? I’m not even sure I know anymore. But we’ve done it, and I’m not sure what we can do about it now.

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  1. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Would there be any sense in reporting that – and sending the photos – to Child Protective Services?  Probably not.  They would likely give the workers each a medal or something.

    • #1
  2. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    I described the unnecessary masking of children — in my particular instance, outdoors during a track meet in 90+ degree weather — as “abusive” in recent Facebook and MeWe posts, and was met with predictable pushback of the “how can you call that abuse?” variety.

    But, yeah. When you see a 13 year old athlete crying because she can barely get enough oxygen through her sweat-soaked mask to finish an 800 meter race… that’s abuse.

    Stupid. Just stupid.

    • #2
  3. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    This was so upsetting that it was hard to read all the way to the end. 

    Where are the nation’s pediatricians!

    • #3
  4. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    I also wonder why their parents would put them in those situations.

    • #4
  5. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    It’s mass insanity/hysteria.
    The corporate media has unbelievable power, and people are obviously are under-equipped to deal with alarmist propaganda everywhere.

    • #5
  6. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    Franco (View Comment):

    It’s mass insanity/hysteria.
    The corporate media has unbelievable power, and people are obviously are under-equipped to deal with alarmist propaganda everywhere.

    It’s terrifying how much power they have.

    • #6
  7. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Weeping (View Comment):

    Franco (View Comment):

    It’s mass insanity/hysteria.
    The corporate media has unbelievable power, and people are obviously are under-equipped to deal with alarmist propaganda everywhere.

    It’s terrifying how much power they have.

    It’s power people willingly give them, because it makes them feel smart and sensible. But of course Chomsky’s idea of “manufactured consent” can’t possibly apply here, because Science.

    • #7
  8. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Weeping (View Comment):

    Franco (View Comment):

    It’s mass insanity/hysteria.
    The corporate media has unbelievable power, and people are obviously are under-equipped to deal with alarmist propaganda everywhere.

    It’s terrifying how much power they have.

    It’s power people willingly give them, because it makes them feel smart and sensible. But of course Chomsky’s idea of “manufactured consent” can’t possibly apply here, because Science.

    As I noted recently on another thread, although they pretend otherwise, science is not the left’s master, it’s their servant.  That’s why it says whatever they want it to.

    • #8
  9. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    MarciN (View Comment):

    This was so upsetting that it was hard to read all the way to the end.

    Where are the nation’s pediatricians!

    An excellent question. The degree to which American medicine has collaborated with the ghouls in this panic is astonishing and appalling.

    • #9
  10. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Weeping (View Comment):

    Franco (View Comment):

    It’s mass insanity/hysteria.
    The corporate media has unbelievable power, and people are obviously are under-equipped to deal with alarmist propaganda everywhere.

    It’s terrifying how much power they have.

    It’s power people willingly give them, because it makes them feel smart and sensible. But of course Chomsky’s idea of “manufactured consent” can’t possibly apply here, because Science.

    I’m not sure if people even know they are giving up their power, so the ‘willingly’ part is questionable. I’m taking about regular people who don’t even know Chomsky – they hear Chomsky and think it’s someone’s oversized dog. 

    • #10
  11. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    There are a lot of better sources than *Chomsky* on the idea of ‘manufactured consent’…Orwell, of course, and Huxley.  There was even a 1954 novel on the subject with the title ‘Year of Consent’.  (I reviewed it here)

    • #11
  12. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    A dark thought:  what % of American parents (I’m talking about white, educated, middle-income & above parents) effectively care more about their status among peers than they care about their children?

    • #12
  13. Nanocelt TheContrarian Member
    Nanocelt TheContrarian
    @NanoceltTheContrarian

    DOn’t get overwrought. It could be worse. The utopian ideal of the Progressive would be that these children simply be eliminated. The motto of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (actually, the Shriver-Kennedy National Institute of Child Health and Human Development), promulgated by a committed Eugenicist/Medical Geneticist, Alan Guttmacher (namesake of the founder of the Guttmacher Institute dedicated to advancing abortion access), second in command of the Human Genome Project under Francis Collins,  is:

    Every child healthy and wanted. 

     

    • #13
  14. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Bethany Mandel: Today was one of those miserable days in Washington D.C. where you wonder what on Earth those who settled this actual swamp were thinking placing our nation’s capital city here.

    I believe they chose a miserable place so Congress would hurry up and do their thing, then get the hell out of there.  Too bad they could not foresee the invention of air conditioning . . .

    • #14
  15. Dominique Prynne Member
    Dominique Prynne
    @DominiquePrynne

    MarciN (View Comment):
    Where are the nation’s pediatricians!

    Not wanting to get involved or “cancelled”.  Heck, they are probably worried they would lose half their patient base if they came out with some common sense recommendations!

    • #15
  16. Hammer, The (Ryan M) Inactive
    Hammer, The (Ryan M)
    @RyanM

    People are now emotionally dependent on this insanity.

    FWIW – my 9 year old has a little-league tournament this coming weekend and the temperature is forecast to be 107f.  We don’t have the same humidity, but it will still be miserable!

    (although nobody will be wearing masks, and I even live in Washington State; not Seattle, obviously)

    • #16
  17. Hammer, The (Ryan M) Inactive
    Hammer, The (Ryan M)
    @RyanM

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Would there be any sense in reporting that – and sending the photos – to Child Protective Services? Probably not. They would likely give the workers each a medal or something.

    hahahaha – CPS enforces the mask nonsense (as well as all of the other manifestations of covid hysteria) more rigorously than anyone else.  It has resulted in quite a lot of irony over the past year. (and fwiw, I’ve made this observation to judges, none of whom have been sympathetic – in fact, both responded with a great deal of anger.)

    • #17
  18. Hammer, The (Ryan M) Inactive
    Hammer, The (Ryan M)
    @RyanM

    And what we can do about it now is to refuse, en masse, and to speak up vocally about it.  Those of us who have been doing so for well over a year may be somewhat irritated to those who are late to the party, but all are welcome at this point – we absolutely can see to it that this does not happen again.

    • #18
  19. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    Hammer, The (Ryan M) (View Comment):

    And what we can do about it now is to refuse, en masse, and to speak up vocally about it. Those of us who have been doing so for well over a year may be somewhat irritated to those who are late to the party, but all are welcome at this point – we absolutely can see to it that this does not happen again.

    Agreed. And that — the speaking up part, certainly — is a very broadly applicable idea.

    We all need to speak out: often, boldly, and, when necessary, indelicately. 

    • #19
  20. Barry Jones Thatcher
    Barry Jones
    @BarryJones

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Weeping (View Comment):

    Franco (View Comment):

    It’s mass insanity/hysteria.
    The corporate media has unbelievable power, and people are obviously are under-equipped to deal with alarmist propaganda everywhere.

    It’s terrifying how much power they have.

    It’s power people willingly give them, because it makes them feel smart and sensible. But of course Chomsky’s idea of “manufactured consent” can’t possibly apply here, because Science.

    Yes and no…the vast majority of people are looking for a leader – perhaps even require a leader to follow – and the “leaders” in government have proven that for the most part they are not leaders but managers(some ae good at it and some ae awful at it but by temperament and inclination, they are managers and bureaucrats) and that leaves the majority of the public leaderless…so they glom onto the media as a substitute for the leadership that is not being shown anywhere else. I think the “looking for a leader” thing goes a long way toward explaining the Trump phenomena. My 2 cents worth…   

    • #20
  21. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Barry Jones (View Comment):
    I think the “looking for a leader” thing goes a long way toward explaining the Trump phenomena. My 2 cents worth…   

    That may be true, but is it necessarily all bad?  Considering the feckless “leadership” we’ve had before and following.

    • #21
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