{"id":22765,"date":"2024-11-26T14:30:40","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T19:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/?p=22765"},"modified":"2024-11-26T14:33:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T19:33:58","slug":"in-the-midst-of-fascist-darkness-the-lamp-of-liberty-remains-lit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/in-the-midst-of-fascist-darkness-the-lamp-of-liberty-remains-lit\/","title":{"rendered":"In the midst of fascist darkness, the lamp of liberty remains lit"},"content":{"rendered":"

An enheartening FauxVid reminiscence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

In the summer of 2020, when the entire nation seemed to have gone mad with fear of the COVID virus, some Long Island retailers gave only lip service to the draconian lockdowns, masking dictates, and \u201csocial distancing\u201d requirements. They published the \u201crules,\u201d but put little or no effort into imposing them on their customers. Those were the ones I patronized. Yet it was all too obvious that most Long Islanders had been cowed by the bellowings from Fauci and the politicians who saw in his pronouncements an opportunity to increase their power over us.<\/p>\n

Masking was ubiquitous. People avoided coming close to one another. The floors of supermarkets were festooned with markings about social distancing. Some put up signs making the aisles into \u201cone-way streets.\u201d It was beyond depressing.<\/p>\n

But I do remember one bright spot. It occurred in a Walgreen\u2019s pharmacy \/ general store. I was there to collect a prescription: blood pressure medications. On my way to the pharmacist\u2019s counter I spied a young woman accompanied by three small children. The young woman was shopping as casually as anyone I\u2019d ever seen. Her kids followed her quietly, exhibiting perfect public behavior rarely seen in toddlers today. And none of the four were masked.<\/p>\n

The young woman smiled when she noticed me looking at her and her children, for I was unmasked as well. We greeted one another and exchanged some small talk as the children clustered around us. Her English was excellent. It developed that she was a widow, a recent immigrant from Eastern Europe who\u2019d just been granted resident alien status.<\/p>\n

Of course the conversation eventually came to the pandemic and the lockdowns. I complimented her on not giving in to the fear campaign. It made her eyes brighten. She smiled and nodded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did this sort of thing to us in my native country,\u201d she said. \u201cArbitrary rules, pulled out of the air. There wasn\u2019t even an excuse for it, much of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gladdened me to see another person who won\u2019t bend to the madness,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Her smile acquired a tinge of pride. \u201cI didn\u2019t come here to put up with more of that nonsense,\u201d she said. \u201cI came here to be an American<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It kept a smile on my face the whole day.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As well it should\u2019ve, Francis. These days people like her are much more truly American than all too many who were born and raised here, alas.<\/p>\n

Here legally too, no less\u2014a rarity indeed. Refreshing all the way around, I\u2019d say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An enheartening FauxVid reminiscence. In the summer of 2020, when the entire nation seemed to have gone mad with fear of the COVID virus, some Long Island retailers gave only lip service to the draconian lockdowns, masking dictates, and \u201csocial distancing\u201d requirements. They published the…<\/p>\n

Would you like to know more? In the midst of fascist darkness, the lamp of liberty remains lit<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15,20,31,36,48,82,85,185,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alt-american","category-begins-at-home","category-brilliant","category-counterrevolution","category-damn-thats-funny","category-flotsam-andor-jetsam","category-our-allies","category-patton-would-be-proud","category-the-resistance","category-or-losing","wpcat-5-id","wpcat-15-id","wpcat-20-id","wpcat-31-id","wpcat-36-id","wpcat-48-id","wpcat-82-id","wpcat-85-id","wpcat-185-id","wpcat-125-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22767,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22765\/revisions\/22767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}