Is California in a “state of emergency” over COVID, or not?

An emergency would imply imminent danger. An emergency would imply a crisis that must be monitored closely and daily. If you’re called away from work for an emergency, your response isn’t to grab lunch first, take a post-meal smoke break, and then wash and wax your car before you head out to see what’s going on. You race out the door and head to the scene and you don’t leave until the immediate emergency has passed or been dealt with in some way.

Yet, this is exactly how Governor Gavin Newsom has been treating the COVID “emergency” in the state of California.

The Governor first declared a State of Emergency (SOE) over the pandemic all the way back in March of 2020. For 20 months, he has held on to emergency powers with an iron-like grip. He’s used the SOE to justify school closures, vaccine mandates, mask mandates, and business restrictions. Municipalities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have used his SOE orders to justify taking even more draconian measures like vaccine passports. Los Angeles has now turned McDonald’s employees into health officers, as every indoor dining space in the city must now check for vaccine papers before allowing people to dine indoors.

An “emergency” implies that the state of California is on the precipice of disaster, and emergency measures must be taken to avoid that. The very definition of an emergency is something immediate…imminent.

And yet, even as industries like shipping, healthcare, and education begin to wither under the weight of questionable health mandates, the Governor is showing up at luxurious weddings and attending to his family and their events without seemingly a care in the world.

Are we in a state of emergency or not?

Certainly, I would expect any husband and father to make time to tend to his family. However, when that husband and father happens to be the Governor of the most populous state in America, one would expect him not to disappear for two weeks without so much as a whisper until people started asking questions. One certainly would not expect such a thing in the midst of an emergency.

Emergencies are typically short-term. You get that call at work — your house has burned down. Yes, that’s an emergency. But you do not remain in a state of emergency for the next two years. Once the initial assessments and arrangements are made, you move on to damage control and then eventually, the issue of your destroyed home becomes a problem to be solved rather than an emergency to be endured. The house moves from “pandemic” to “endemic.”

Here in California, we have been told for 20 months that we are in a dire emergency. It is psychologically cruel. No one can live in a state of emergency for that long. The constant uncertainty is a recipe for angst and decreased productivity and our state is beginning to show the strains of that uncertainty.

If we are standing on the razor’s edge between a corporate death and survival, then just where the hell is Gavin Newsom?

If we are in a true emergency, still, then Newsom damn well better be sealed in his office every single day, masked, gloved, and limiting his contact with other people. He certainly shouldn’t be out socializing. He’s used the SOE to shut down the livelihoods of millions of people across the state and currently, that SOE is giving him the political power to tell parents they must give their children an experimental vaccine or risk losing their right to a public education. If this man is going to try to force me to inject my child with something I don’t feel is safe for her, then I fully expect him to be sitting at his desk 24/7 until this “emergency” has been dealt with.

The truth is, of course, that we are not in a state of emergency at all. Our Governor’s casual lifestyle over the last couple of weeks certainly proves that, as do dropping COVID numbers across the state. We are at about 12 new COVID cases per 100,000 residents. Hardly “emergency” numbers.

But while he carries on with his life as usual, I’m supposed to believe that the situation in California is so dangerous that if I don’t get this brand new COVID vaccine for my child, we may all perish.

The only emergency this state has right now is one of leadership. We are in a crisis of leadership even as we are being asked to bend to the will of that leadership.

It is unconscionable. It is diabolical. It is pathetic.

And it is totally obvious. Newsom keeps the pandemic dollars flowing as long as he keeps that “emergency” going. The rest of us can pound sand, I guess.

There is a school choice initiative being proposed for the 2022 ballot and it is going to be a huge deal…bigger than the recall. As parents face the reality of upcoming vaccine mandates in schools, millions will be looking for a way out and school choice will be the solution. Even parents who want to stay masked up and vaxxed up can support the initiative, because it will give them a way to segregate their children from the unwashed masses who refuse to live in a constant state of emergency. It’s a win-win for everyone except Newsom and the teachers’ unions.

Newsom has proven he’s not interested in moving California away from this SOE and he’s not interested in solving the emergency. He may come to regret the casual nature with which he has treated this pandemic in the waning days of its foothold on American society. Perhaps soon enough, the real emergency will be how he funds his bid for the White House after his casual approach to his state’s emergency status causes millions of parents to defund the teachers’ unions in a massive exodus from public schools.

Maybe it will happen, maybe not; but the Governor should not make the mistake of imagining that we parents aren’t noticing his uncaring absence in the face of what he wants us to believe is a life and death battle for the health of our children.