I tell you this to explain that the other night I was visiting with a group of parents to hear their concerns, and one woman told me, “Kira, at one point during this mandate madness I actually stopped and asked myself…am I the one who’s crazy? Maybe it’s me! Maybe I’m just not understanding this whole mandate thing, I’m just not getting it. I even asked God to show me where I’m wrong! So many people are so loud about it, I thought maybe it’s just me who isn’t getting it.”

I understood her immediately and completely. I’ve had the same thought more than once over the last two years.

Lord, is it me? Am I the one who’s crazy?

Letting parents decide what can and can’t be injected into a child’s body seems like a no-brainer. Letting those least vulnerable to COVID (that’s children, for you anti-science folks out there) carry on with as normal lives as possible seems like a no-brainer. Letting people make their own decisions about covering their faces seems like a no-brainer. Keeping the economy open and as thriving as possible seems like a no-brainer. Letting people make their own health decisions seems like a no-brainer.

None of this seems complicated. If you want to stay home and masked, stay home and mask! If you don’t, don’t. If you don’t trust your vaccine, by all means, stay inside and away from everyone forever. That should be your choice. No one should be forced to endure that choice with you if they don’t feel it’s necessary for their survival.

And yet, people like me, and you, and that woman are constantly being shouted down as murderers, uncaring parents, irresponsible citizens…hell, the word ‘Nazi’ has been thrown around quite a bit too. We parents have been accused of being domestic terrorists for the simple request of transparency from our school boards and educators. Even some of our own pastors and religious leaders are telling us that we’re supposed to shun the unvaccinated as a show of “Christian love.”

It’s enough to make a person feel crazy.

But you are not crazy. We’re not crazy. In fact, I’ve heard it said many times over that the very act of asking if you’re crazy is proof that you are not. Sometimes the tide feels so strong, standing against it makes your legs feel shaky. You start to sink in the collecting sand beneath the water and you wonder, “Should I just dive in and go with the flow?” That is a thought brought on by fatigue, not rationale. We are all tired of having to fight about things we find to be perfectly rational and non-partisan. A parent’s authority in their child’s life should not be controversial. It really isn’t controversial to sane people. The crazy people are the ones trying to make you feel crazy for simply exercising your parental duties.

If you’re looking around right now and feeling like none of this makes sense, it’s because none of this makes sense.

You are not crazy. They are.

Hold the line.