Major cities on both coasts are lining up to lead the “vaccine mandate” charge, requiring everyone living in those cities to get the experimental vaccine or be stuck on the outside, looking in — literally. So far, New York City on the East Coast and Los Angeles and San Francisco on the West Coast have announced that beginning this month, all residents who are old enough to receive the experimental shots will be required to do so in order to gain access to indoor dining and entertainment.
Yes, bread and circuses.
Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced New York City’s “Key To NYC Pass” policy, which mandates that people provide proof of vaccination for many indoor activities. The new rules begin on August 16 and enforcement begins about a month later in mid-September. In announcing the mandate, Mayor de Blasio said, “It’s time for people to see vaccination as literally necessary to living a good and full and healthy life,” adding, “The Key to NYC Pass will be a first-in-the-nation approach. It will require vaccination for workers and customers in indoor dining, in indoor fitness facilities, indoor entertainment facilities.”
Following the announcement in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles announced almost simultaneously that they are likewise mandating vaccines for anyone who wants to enjoy life.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said his city will require residents age 12 and older to show proof they have been fully vaccinated against COVID in order to enter indoor dining and entertainment establishments, saying, “We know that for our city to bounce back from the pandemic and thrive, we need to use the best method we have to fight COVID-19 and that’s vaccines.” Breed went on to say, “Many San Francisco businesses are already leading the way by requiring proof of vaccination for their customers because they care about the health of their employees, their customers, and this City.”
And the Los Angeles City Council voted 13 to 0 to mandate vaccines without actually calling it a mandate. The council’s vote requires the city attorney to create an ordinance requiring people to show proof of at least partial vaccination against COVID in order to enter most public indoor spaces in the city, including restaurants, bars, gyms, concert venues, movie theaters, and even “retail establishments.” But Council President Nury Martinez and Councilman Mitch O’Farrell do not prefer to call it a mandate, choosing instead to call it a “requirement.” In a statement on the “requirement,” O’Farrell said, “This is not a vaccine mandate…. We’re not going to deny anyone the ability to access essentials, food, medicine, etc., regardless of vaccination,” adding that it is “immoral” to choose “not to get vaccinated, choosing to listen to some delusional rant on Twitter.” In that statement, he asked, “Why on Earth is it OK in 2021 to have 30 plus people die in the county of Los Angeles from COVID over a three-day period, including an 11-year- old girl, when we have a vaccine that could have prevented all of that?”
But since “retail establishments” are included in this “requirement” to be vaccinated, it is currently the most restrictive mandate — even if Los Angeles doesn’t want to call it that. In fact, City Attorney Mike Feuer — who is tasked with writing the ordinance — wrote a piece for the left-leaning Medium advocating what he calls a “No shots, no admission” policy, writing, “Those who reject that responsibility [to receive the experimental vaccines] should temporarily lose some of society’s privileges until their reckless behavior no longer endangers the rest of us.” And while the council attempts to dodge the “mandate” tag, Feuer brazenly embraces it, titling his Medium piece “Time For Vaccine Mandates.”
In pushing for a mandate — while openly calling it that — Feuer writes:
We’ve all heard the excuses: Vaccines are “dangerous,” “experimental,” or “a conspiracy.” “My immune system is strong.” “I’m young and healthy, and even if I do get sick, I’ll be fine.” What about the threat you could pose to children and immunocompromised people?
Los Angeles is setting the pace for vaccine mandates that will almost certainly be followed by other cities (as will as some states). It is therefore worth noting the ideas that occupy the mind and show forth in the writing of the man who is drafting the ordinance for Los Angeles. In his Medium piece, Feuer writes:
I urge officials at every level of government to implement firm vaccine mandates. After a brief interim period to allow an additional opportunity for unvaccinated people to receive the vaccine, these mandates should include, but not be limited to:
1. Requiring proof of vaccination in an array of indoor public places, including restaurants, bars, gyms and performance and event venues. No shots, no admission.
2. Requiring ALL public employees be fully vaccinated, or face possible suspension or even termination, with appropriate exemptions. No shots, no job serving the public.
3. Requiring ALL passengers traveling by plane to prove they are fully vaccinated, or, at the very least, that they are COVID-negative. No shots (or tests), no flight.
In short, only those willing to receive an experimental vaccine — and thus become part of the testing of an otherwise untested drug — deserve the right to live their lives as members of society. This goes beyond the “bread and circuses” element of current vaccine mandates in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. This creates a “second class” of citizens based on their unwillingness to obey an order that defies logic and reason, and may also violate their moral conscience. Those who are unwilling to offer blind obedience are in that “second class” and are put on the outside of society looking in.
What’s next? No shot, no travel to work or church — or even the grocery store? No shot, around-the-clock quarantine at home — or perhaps even “quarantine” in camps for those stubborn individuals who are recalcitrant? If this sounds over the top — and let’s hope government overreach never gets to this point — consider the extent to which our world has been turned upside down since early 2020.
The clear take away is that this is about much more than just whether or not a person gets the shots; It is about naked obedience, period.
And the stakes are getting higher and higher for refusal to obey. Because Feuer’s admonition verges on sounding like another mandate described in Sacred Scripture. After all, Feuer would stop just short of having it so that “no man might buy or sell [or travel or work or live his life], but he that hath the [vaccine].”
That this type of blind obedience being inculcated into the minds of the citizenry lends itself to the type of tyranny described in that passage from the Bible is self evident. Liberty requires that free citizens are able to resist novel laws, ordinances, and rules that violate moral reasoning. If a free citizen doubts the efficacy or safety of the vaccine, he has the right to resist getting it. Maintaining that freedom is a necessary part of maintaining all other freedoms — now and in the future.
