A crisis of faith. Anybody who has recently traveled outside Washington State has good reason to seriously doubt the necessity for the lockdowns and mandates decreed by Governor Inslee and our public health officer. Other states are much freer. Some never locked down. Others required only looser restrictions for a much shorter period of time than we have experienced. Yet those states are doing better. You can feel it and see it in the shops and restaurants, in the museums and churches, in performance halls and on the streets.
I have taken two long trips since our public health officer required vaccine passports to dine out and masks indoors for everyone. One excursion was a 4,600 mile road trip through seven other states. We reached Iowa on a route across Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska. After wandering back roads and visiting small towns and villages amid Iowa’s cornfields, we returned on a northerly route through South Dakota, Wyoming again, Montana, Idaho’s panhandle and Washington’s Palouse country.
After leaving Washington, we were required to wear a mask only once, in the Pendleton factory store in Pendleton, Oregon. But the restaurant where we ate in that town told us not to bother.
In Idaho we saw next to no one wearing masks.
In Salt Lake City, Utah, some of the waiters and store clerks wore masks, some did not. Customers dared show their faces. We caught Michael Bublé at the Vivant Arena. His performance had been rescheduled two times since the onset of the pandemic. Admission required proof of vaccination. (I had weighed much of the evidence and studies, including articles on this site, and decided my health needs were best served by getting the Moderna vaccine.) Inside, the sold-out crowd of nearly 20,000 was maskless, as was Bublé. I can’t imagine him delivering Louie Prima’s “Just a Gigolo” through a blue surgical face covering. Some members of his orchestra wore masks—like the piano player—but not, of course, the men blowing saxophones or trombones or his backup singers.
In Wyoming and Nebraska, some employees at truck stops wore masks, as did some travelers. If the station were part of a national chain, the staff usually wore masks, but not at independent businesses. Nobody wore masks in the huge Cabela’s flagship store in Sidney, Nebraska.
Monumental taxidermy exhibit, Cabela’s, Sidney, NE
Mask wearing was entirely voluntary throughout the trip. The vast majority of people we saw chose not to wear masks.
In Dodge City, Iowa, the woman in the featured photo at top haphazardly wore a mask, but only as part of her costume. She was dishing out free cups of mac n’ cheese and mashed potatoes at a gas station, “just to cheer folks up.” That’s Iowa friendly, for you. Iowa really is a cheerful and amiable place. People meet your eye and smile at you on the street, in the stores… everywhere.
It was great to see so many smiling faces again. It’s a shame we had to travel to the center of the country for that pleasure.
The iconic Taylor’s Maid-Rite, Marshalltown, Iowa
For over a week we had seen no signs requiring masks until we were inside the Badlands National Park. At the bottom of a hill in the middle of nowhere sat a diminutive National Park Service tourism center. It announced that federal law required masks. About half the people complied. At Mount Rushmore nobody paid attention to placards repeating President Biden’s mask decree, though some people in masks did pose for photos with the four presidents—maskless—towering behind them. Go figure.
Like its big sky and sprawling landscape, Montana was wide open. We got snowed in for two days in Livingston and holed up in a chain hotel. The staff wore masks, sort of. One of our fellow stranded travelers walked his dog after the blizzard lifted. He was out there alone making tracks in a patch of white and wearing a surgical mask. God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy, so the Billy Currington song goes. Rather than “crazy”, it might be more accurate to say this man was “irrationally terrified.” But that would never work in a country song.
When we reached our hotel in Spokane on the return leg I caught the evil eye from a masked hotel clerk as I passed through the lobby trundling luggage to our room. Right, I’m back in Jay Inslee’s domain. It took me a while to locate the mask I had stuffed somewhere in the van. At least we did not have to pull out our vax passports for the unexpected delight of a dinner of fiery Ethiopian food. Showing our papers in order to dine out would not happen again until we had returned to Jefferson County.
We saw no bodies in the streets along our route. No black crepe over doors. I know that’s overstating how we would measure the success of these states’ measures against COVID. But I paid attention to local news and read nothing about any medical crises.
Jay Inslee points to Idaho as a way of trying to convince people his dictatorial decrees and their costs and impositions are medically necessary to save lives. Yes, Idaho has gone through a challenging period of time as it struggled to maintain the delivery of medical services to everyone. But so did Washington. Starting in March 2020 for several months Governor Inslee flat out prohibited any medical procedures except treating COVID, addressing immediate threats to life (e.g., gun shot wounds) and surgical abortions. Hospitals were never close to overwhelmed. (See my article from last year, “You Can’t Believe Jay Inslee: His Big COVID Hospital Crisis Lie.”)
Please recall that Seattle received an emergency Army field hospital and sports arenas were turned into expansive hospital wards. Except for Inslee’s photo ops, these facilities were never used. Hospitals were actually quite empty and laying off nursing staff. Inslee ignored the pleas of the Washington hospital association and medical society to let doctors care for their patients. One can only wonder how many people Jay Inslee killed and caused to suffer grievously. One can only wonder how many cancer cases advanced to more serious stages because of Inslee’s orders that blocked preventive care and kept surgical theaters empty. I have a friend who was rushed not long ago into surgery to remove part of his cancerous colon. A fairly young man, his colonoscopy had been cancelled by Inslee’s 2020 order. The log jam caused by the disruption of delivery of medical services pushed his rescheduled appointment out almost a year. He was in the ER before that postponed appointment came around. He is now undergoing chemotherapy.
And, of course, there’s Florida, which I did not reach on my travels. That state has been mocked by our Governor and former public health officer for minimal restrictions that favored upholding the merits of personal and economic freedom. Yet Florida for some time has had the lowest per capita incidence of COVID infections in the country. Its economy is booming and it is not suffering infrastructure problems. Meanwhile, Inslee’s government has slashed ferry schedules and announced that mountain passes may not be regularly cleared of snow because the Washington Department of Transportation has lost so many key people to his vax mandate penalties.
I am writing now from Pennsylvania. In the past week I have worn a mask only in the senior facility where I’ve visited family members. The rule there is a bit nonsensical. The octogenarian walking to dinner must wear a mask, though they may be alone in the hallway. Inside the dining room, by way of contrast, I saw over a hundred senior citizens seated at tables talking and laughing without masks. Everyone has been vaccinated, and there have been no outbreaks of COVID since the start of the pandemic. The ladies playing cards in the Bistro and chatting in the lounges on the resident floors, I will add, regularly ignore the masking rules and management has let them be.
Life seems normal here. One can shop at the historic Allentown Fairgrounds Farmer’s Market. No need to cover your face to stock up on smoked pig’s ears or smoked beef trachea. And don’t pass up the fresh scrapple, a Pennsylvania Dutch delicacy. Yum.
I am heading back to SeaTac in a short while. Except when I am eating and drinking, I will have to wear a mask from the time I return my rental at the Philly airport until I reach my own car at SeaTac. Allowing people to remove their masks at any time during their flight seems to undermine the rationale for mandating masks at any other time. All those passengers crammed in a metal tube without masks eating and drinking (and stretching out their meals to extend their taste of liberty) would seem to risk spreading COVID—if there were a real risk. Alaska Airlines assures us that the air filtration systems in their planes are amazingly effective, rendering cabin air perfectly safe to breathe. I believe them.
I scored a first-class seat on the return trip. Conceivably, I could eat and drink for the six-plus hours it will take to cross the continent. “Another coffee, please.” “Do you have more nuts?” I could then nibble my cashews and almonds one at a time and order a drink to sip afterwards and then request a bag of popcorn and stretch that out. And then, of course, I would again need to wet my whistle, very, very slowly.
Rick Steves says travel “acts as our greatest teacher.” So what are the lessons of traveling beyond our fear-riddled, mandate-hobbled community? The answer is obvious: It doesn’t have to be this way.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our "About" page for more information.
My perspective is just the opposite of Jim’s. I have travelled to North Carolina in July; Maine, Vermont and New York in September; and Arizona, Utah, Nevada in October. I felt infinitely safer in states where mask wearing was required or strongly encouraged. For example, the Green Mountain Inn in Stowe, VT required patrons to be vaccinated and still encouraged mask wearing. North Carolina’s Asheville area was fairly mask-conscious. On the other hand, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada were states where I never felt safe due to the large number of people and venues that did not abide by mask wearing. We keep hearing from pundits that Gov. Inslee’s mandate is dictatorial. On the contrary, it is courageous use of democratically delegated emergency power to be used in extreme circumstances. If someone denies that a pandemic is not an extreme circumstance, then there is no reasoning with that person. We’ve all heard the analogies to mask mandates–car seat mandates, seat belt mandates, helmet mandates, auto license mandates, conceal carry license mandates, childhood immunization mandates–and the list goes on. Why the mandates? To protect individual and community safety in the face of people who, for whatever reason, do not appreciate the need to protect for the common good. So to Jim’s perspective, I say thank goodness for courageous public servants, courageous merchants in recalcitrant states, and courageous individuals who care not only about their own safety but the safety of others.
Yes! We had exactly the same feeling of freedom while driving across country this Autumn. The stupidity of our governor’s decrees made obvious by the sane states/citizens we encountered. Regretfully too many in this state/county believe “the sky is falling.” Hildegard
I have had the pleasure of visiting Florida twice this year, September and again in October. From the moment we landed and left confines of the airport, freedom never tasted so good, which is what prompted the 2nd trip. Very seldom did we encounter anyone wearing a mask, servers and store owners weren’t masked up and patrons weren’t required to wear them. I most definitely did not want to return to Washington’s (Insleeze) doom & gloom mandates and the homeless drug addiction riddled state. My husband also spent another 10 days in Wyoming, not only no masks there, but bringing alcohol home was another cost savings. We will continue to financially support free states at every given opportunity.
Thank you, Jim, for a very insightful article.
Despots know their only hold on the masses is through fear. Only a fool, at this point, would wear a mask to protect him/herself from the Covid virus. Mask and vaccination orders are accompanied by threats, by inciting the public to fear our oppressive, power-crazed government officials. What rights will these thugs forcibly take next? Federal, State and local tyrants have already stolen, or attempted to steal, our right to congregate, to worship freely, to eat and drink in public establishments, to seek medical care and our right to shop without fear of being arrested for not wearing a mask or for refusing to take an experimental ‘vaccine’ many of us consider potentially harmful or downright dangerous. Reports tell us emergency rooms all over the world are filled to overflowing, not with Covid patients, but with those suffering horribly from the aftereffects of these poisonous ‘inoculations’.
When will the people of Washington State grow spines and demand the rights our forefathers fought and died for. One look at the White House should confirm the risks we run when we neglect to demand lawful, corruption-free elections, elections that insure our right to be governed by honest and capable leaders.
Thank you for this very valuable article. Last spring I asked a friend who had moved to a rural area of Idaho, “Have you had any covid outbreaks in your area?”. They replied, “Well, yes, I heard about some small outbreaks in some of the Churches recently. But the local hospital prescribes the Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine protocols, so everyone is fine. No deaths that I’ve heard of. No one is worried. No masks. No lockdowns.” So yes, as your travels helped reveal, Washington state and Jefferson county are existing in a little dark bubble of misinformation, fear, confusion, and self destruction. Another important point is that here in Washington, the state board of pharmacy and health are actively suppressing clinically proven early treatment protocols. That makes them complicit in hundreds of deaths that could have been easily prevented.
Todd, I am sorry that you feel “infinitely” safer in places where people are forced to wear a mask. Irrational fear can create irrational behavior and you are suffering irrational fear. If a mask makes you feel safer, go ahead and wear it, but don’t use the government to force other people to wear one.
Masks don’t work. There is plenty of information on this, if you dare to read it. (https://swprs.org/face-masks-and-covid-the-evidence/) But it takes courage, because when you realize that you are not “infinitely” safer with your mouth and nose behind a piece of cloth, you might have to start asking yourself difficult questions like:
Am I in a high-risk group?
Can I do anything to improve my health and lower my risk? Like proper diet and exercise?
Do I need to lose weight?
What is my vitamin D level?
If I catch covid will my doctor provide effective early treatment? Or will my doctor wait until I am hospitalized to begin treatment?
The fact is there are plenty of EFFECTIVE things YOU can do to lower your risk if you catch covid. Making ME wear a mask is not one of them.
As I was reading Jim’s article, it was apparent that many states he visited have either no mandates or loose mandates with the exception of Washington State and obviously the Northern Peninsula being the most restrictive in the state. After reading his article my mind hopped aboard the way back machine and I tried to remember if there has ever been a social or national problem that hasn’t been caused or greatly contributed to by government? Government causes most of our problems, then blames the opposing party, foreign governments, the citizens or a virus for the problem they caused and then we, the citizens, expect the initiator of the problem to fix it.
Some years ago when I was studying to be a Beach Watcher, our class visited a National Forest station in Quilcene. When asked what the office was currently involved in the answer was that they had been working on solving problems in the environment that had been caused by the same office a few years previously. No firings, no reprimands, and no department shake ups, just standard operating procedure.
The question then presents itself, do politicians exist as a self regulating body that has autonomous authority to do what is best for them or are they there to serve the people they represent by being a voice of all the people?
The fact remains that most folks have less than a 1% chance of dying from this virus that probably was designed, and made as a biological weapon. Government (the US or China) most likely was complicit in the development and leak of the virus; banks, corporations, the Defense Department and the Tech industry in partnership with Main Stream News then generated a campaign of fear unlike anything ever seen and that led many to believe that only the vaccinated would live and many of the rest would die.
So we have states like Florida that have no mandates and has the least amount of Covid cases vs. Jefferson county that, according to our health director, Dr. Berry, by imposing very strict mandates, has avoided a “severe” outbreak. The fact also remains that cases don’t mean death, in fact, it means natural immunity and that mandates unnecessarily mean psychological, physiological and economic hardship.
This virus was developed as a bio-weapon. It was then accidentally or purposely released from a government lab. It was then sold as deadly killer, and we were then given only ONE choice of getting out of this “pandemic”, vaccination. Now we are seeing this vaccination is NO vaccination in that you can still get it and spread it and it wears off much more quickly than advertised. So we are still involved with masks, social isolation, and job crushing mandates. What’s next, vaccine passports, wearable health chips, continual boosters, more vaccine deaths and getting lost in the matrix of the internet of things? Government has caused the problem and then we the citizens look for government to cure the problem. How and when this pattern stops depends on us, not on government. We must remember that insanity is trying to solve the problem in the same way hoping this time will be different.
We often are on the road traveling either by motorcycle, or in our travel trailer. Clearly, the freedom of choice is apparent even as soon as you get east of the Cascades. People wear masks if they desire, others do not if they do not desire. I guess my logic might be skewed, but if those who wear a mask are protected from those not wearing a mask, what is the issue? Anyways yes again on how very different it is.
Outstanding article! Thank you! I’m not a resident of Pt. Townsend but am a “neighbor” – I find your Free Press more informative for our local communities than any other offerings locally. The newspapers are so biased, there just are no words. Again, a big “Thank You” for your long suffering efforts.
I am 65 years old and I have 12 family members who have had covid and 4 more that are reasonably sure they had it in the beginning. I have had regular contact with most of them. I’m fine. None of them went to the hospital, thank God and all of them felt fine within about a week. Now they have the much much better immunity than the unapproved jab can give.
Cigarettes cause millions more deaths than this thing does but no one has to wear masks because of them.
Take care of yourselves and take the recommended supplements, (NOT mad scientist Dr. Fauci Megele’s recommendations), get your vitamin D levels checked and let’s get through this. Don’t submit to the communist dictators who only want to control us and don’t care about our health
BTW, masks don’t do anything, its like trying to use chicken wire to keep mosquitoes out of your yard
“God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy,”…..Adding that to my Lexicon. Thanks!
I was talking to my buddy last night 11/08, who lives in Petaluma, California, and he said that on his local news last night that it was being reported that Masked California’s COVID rate is now twice Florida’s.
when it is asked by a business that I wear a mask uoon enering I will wear one. The reason is that the Mask Nazis can come and fine the business because it has more money than the customers. I also know (I was in a special weapons suppy company) that these masks don’t do anything. If you want one that really works (government issue), put up the money to buy it. I was also told in training that in 1965 we had weapons that would kill enemies and leave our troops without harm. We were supporting a Sergeant Missile Company and assumed we had Nukes. I’m a paid member of the American Legion. Now I wonder what we had. My Secret Clearance wouldn’t get me in our X-Area. I’ve never been vaccinated and pay my American Legion dues and can only go in for the two meetings a month. I can’t socialize in the club or drink there. Again, I would urge anyone to read the books “None Dare Call It Conspiracy” and “Behold A Pale Horse.” Both of them will give you a lot to think about. Be aware that we’re in a very dangerous time in our country. There are powerful people who want to take your liberties away.
I live in Southeast Florida (Palm Beach County which had stricter protocols than other parts of the state) for about 8 months of the year and PT in the summer. Masks are currently only required, as far as I can tell, in doctor’s offices and hospitals.
When the pandemic began and before we knew anything about what was going on and how to treat Covid, my husband and I were cautious for about 3 weeks. After research, we both went essentially back to normal life although I washed my hands more often after being out in public. When masking became required here in public spaces about spring of 2020, I went from not touching my face to constantly adjusting my mask, such that it was (a thin scarf that did not impede my ability to breathe).
I have made essentially no adjustments in my life except when in PT last summer. Your rules made me crazy and then you shut down the restaurants to unvaccinated me. Yes, I’ve researched whether or not I should be vaccinated, too. We both got one Moderna shot at Safeway and instantly regretted it. I was fine, but my husband was sick for a few days and then had lingering problems for a few weeks.
My son’s wife (they live here in Florida) felt so much pressure from her boss that she got vaccinated with the one shot J&J several months ago. She developed some health issues that her doctor told her were vaccine-related as they have seen a good deal of her particular reaction. My son and their two children, 9 and 11, are recently recovered from Covid. My son went right and got Gov. DeSantis’ Regereron which he has made available throughout the state. He was fairly sick for all of 12 hours and then described his subsequent symptoms as like a cold. My grandchildren had no symptoms whatsoever unless you count one who had a fever of 100 at one point but we only know this because his mom took his temperature. They all tested negative about a week to a week and a half after testing positive, the kids being quicker than my son to test negative.
I have many unvaccinated friends who do as I do and take the vitamin, mineral and Quercetin protocol for prevention. None wear masks except when required and never have, with one literally never wearing one unless specifically asked to. Some have gotten Covid and some haven’t. All have recovered with no issues. Some had it and didn’t know it until later when they discovered they had the antibodies!
To this point neither my husband nor I have had Covid and if we do get it we are prepared with the recommended protocol to avoid the hospital at all costs where treatment seems to be not much more than a ventilator when you get bad enough.
I have never seen a health issue so poorly handled by the government. I have lost all faith in the CDC, the NIH, and Dr. Fauci. When Rahm Emanuel said that we should never let a crisis go to waste, he was prescient regarding this “crisis.” Our feckless government and those of many states, Washington included, have taken the opportunity to exert as much control over people as they can get away with. We the people need to push back and resist. I for one, even if I were fully vaccinated, will refuse to show my vaccination status to anyone. (Strangely, I’m never asked by health care providers to whom I’d be glad to share my status.)
Will I return to PT next summer? Honestly, I’m not much inclined to although we have family there, many great friends, and a fine church. I will certainly truncate my stay unless Gov. Inslee and Jefferson County loosen up significantly. I am SO grateful to be a Florida resident.
“Feeling safe” is not a measure of actual risk. You may not “feel safe” if you visited the free state of Florida, but the data says that those states with higher vaccination rates and higher masking are enjoying as much or greater rates of infection and hospitalization.
“The question then presents itself, do politicians exist as a self regulating body that has autonomous authority to do what is best for them or are they there to serve the people they represent by being a voice of all the people?”
I’m reminded of the Thomas Jefferson quote “Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”
Todd:
Strapping a seatbelt across one’s torso or donning a motorcycle helmet is not equivalent to irreversibly injecting a substance in one’s body or a child’s body for which we have no medium-long-term safety data, that is ineffective in preventing transmission, requires a seemingly endless parade of booster shots for which – again – we have no medium-long-term safety or efficacy data. You cannot undo an injection like you can unhook your seatbelt or take yourself outside to smoke a cigarette. As for true immunizations, i.e. vaccines that prevent transmission, those come with years of peer-reviewed studies and are a response to diseases that actually pose a true risk. COVID-19 has a 99%+ survival rate, if one even becomes ill (cases are not illnesses). I won’t even get into the adverse health events and deaths from these drugs, which have been covered at length on this website, and in research coming in from across the globe, from countries that are not manipulating or disappearing their data as in the USA, by the CDC down to our own county public health department.
If you, like Jim, have determined that it is best for you to receive one of these injections and their boosters, I applaud that. Good for you for making the decision you believe is best for your health. But how anyone can justify injecting these drugs, or supporting the injection of children when children are at a minuscule risk of contracting, much less becoming ill from, Covid, is mind-boggling. It is unconscionable. The same with jeopardizing adults’ livelihood and freedom of movement with coercion and threats unless they succumb to an injection for a virus that poses a significant risk to a very identifiable segment of the population, which does not include healthy adults or children.
If you cannot see the difference, you are lost. If you cannot see the inherent insanity in insisting that everyone be injected to make your injection work, you are lost. If you truly believe that anything less than an N95 mask is an effective barrier against this respiratory virus, you are ignorant of the science. Your comfort in seeing masked people has no basis in reality, your fear of infection is irrational. You are equating mask-wearing and drug mandates with the public good, when in fact you are destroying society with fear-based, irrational behavior driven by lies; lies from the CDC, from government, from media, from pharmaceutical advertisements. You have succumbed to mass hysteria. I get it. Covid is real, and it deserves respect and attention. An extreme circumstance for those most at risk, to be sure. Clearly, as case numbers and deaths rise AFTER a majority of folks are vaccinated, as we’ve seen right here in JeffCo, the response is not working. The drugs are not working. Masks never worked. But fear campaigns sure do. You’re right, it’s virtually impossible to reason with someone in denial.
We have the resources to manage this as a health concern, not a political crisis. Fear is not virtuous, it is not helpful, and it is tearing us apart. You “felt” safer in areas with masks and mandates. The reality is, you were not.
And just a quick reality check. You cite Covid as an “extreme circumstance”. How do you square that with your recent American tour? Seems that if the threat were truly extreme, gadding about the country, frequenting airports, airplanes, or even if you managed with an RV, spending time in those states that made you feel so afraid seems like extremely irrational behavior, given your obvious fear. Either Covid is an extreme danger and you should consider staying at home, so as not to put yourself and others at risk (after all, our own health officer cites travel outside of the county as one of the most significant factors in increasing local spread of Covid) or you just want to continue the fear-mongering to justify your self-righteousness, while living the life YOU want. Can’t have it both ways, Todd.
Those of us applying rational, critical thought, reading from a wide variety of sources, and resisting the mass hysteria and social control are without a doubt acting in the public good. We are fighting for your right to bodily autonomy, medical freedom, rational behavior, freedom of speech, and freedom from fear with real data and true science. You’re welcome.
“It’s not unthinkable that the final outcome would be total societal control on every aspect of your life. Consider this — the endpoint of a mentally ill person is for them to be put under a controlled environment (institutionalized like an asylum) where all freedoms are restricted. And it’s looking more and more like that’s the endpoint of where this mass psychosis is heading.” Psychiatrist and medical legal expert Dr. Mark McDonald.
Maybe someone can help me out here. If you’re standing in a restaurant or bar, how short do you have to be to stand to eat or drink? It must be taller than someone sitting at a chair or stool because you have to be to stand at the same location? These are some of the things that keep me awake at night.