Springtime in New York is one of the glories of the Northeast, with hours more daylight and the renewal that comes after our difficult winters.  However, things are different today as we enter the second year of COVID Mania.  This spring is more like T.S. Eliot's line that "April is the cruelest month."

If you live in a Free State such as Florida, I'm sure it's hard to imagine the way things still are in some of the blue states that were locked down to the max last year.  Life does seem to have gotten better with the nice weather — that is, unless you stray too far from home and into the marketplace, where face diapers and unsocial distancing are still the rule.  The mask insanity has gotten worse since the evil Fauci suggested that two muzzles are better than one.

And forget about not wearing your muzzle.  We now have virtue-signaling Kens and Karens everywhere, screaming, "Cover your nose."  There are supposed to be exemptions, but those are never allowed, even in outdoor situations such as garden centers.

The latest obscenity in N.Y. is the "Excelsior Pass" or "vaccine passport."  Supposedly, they will give us back some of our liberties and civil rights if we can prove we've taken the vaccine.  Many feel that this is a weird mirror image of the yellow stars Nazis forced on Jews — this time around, the ones without the pass are the disfavored ones who will be denied rights.

This vaccine passport concept is already being tried out in venues like Citi Stadium, where the Mets will be playing.  The new rules include authorized full face covering (nose and mouth) for everyone over the age of two, plus proof of vaccine or antibody tests.  Why anyone would submit to these indignities just to watch a ball game is beyond my comprehension.

Neither New York citizens nor their elected representatives voted regarding limiting our most fundamental freedoms.  Instead, as in the other blue gulags, our governor decreed that we were not allowed to show our faces, visit the sick, go to church, have our hair done, or attend school.  Despite what you may have heard, our Legislature did not take back their powers, and Killer Cuomo remains in charge.

Speaking of our magnificent elected representatives, the majority of whom are leftist Demo-Commies, they will be voting on legislation that will install a permanent on-the-job mask mandate (Bill S1034A), internment camps for COVID and other infectious diseases (Bill A00099), and forced vaccinations for children without parental consent (Bill A11179).

We are paying millions of dollars to support teachers who don't teach, government workers who won't do their jobs, courts that dispense no justice, and town halls that have been locked down for over a year.  On a practical level, this makes it really impossible for homeowners, landlords, contractors, et al., who are actually trying to get work done and do business.  Landlords have been especially hard hit as we can no longer evict deadbeat tenants, no matter how much money they owe us.  Even if the law allowed it, the courts are closed.

All town meetings are held via Zoom, without live public comment.  We are advised to submit written comments beforehand to the town supervisor, who decides if he will read them or not.  When they have live Zoom meetings, they won't admit the "troublemakers," and if one of us does accidentally get in, we are muted.  Our town hall looks like some kind of paramilitary police base with lockboxes on the outside where papers can be submitted plus numerous signs warning we are not allowed in without an appointment and a mask.

Our school district just completed a huge multi-million-dollar boondoggle called a "wellness center," which is an enclosed turf field for all the sports that are not being played.  Like every other building that the taxpayers fund, we are not allowed to use it, even though it would be a wonderful space for our community groups to meet while we are locked out of usual meeting places.

I wish I had a more hopeful message, but as bad as things are, there is very little resistance, at least here in the COVID-Compliant NYC suburbs.  It breaks my heart to say it, but I don't see any way out of this as long as the people are so apathetic, and the state continues to be run by corrupt, left-wing Democrats who never saw a tyranny they didn't like.

Irene Heron is a pseudonym.

Image: Statute of Liberty head by David Saddler (with added tears).  CC BY 2.0.

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