My wife, teenage daughter and I went for a drive on Saturday afternoon. Part of our little journey took through downtown Sudbury. That was deliberate. I wanted to see the protesters.
On Saturday afternoon, upwards of 200 Sudburians crowded onto a sidewalk on the west side of Paris Street in front of Tom Davies Square.
While the mood of the crowd was friendly, jovial, even celebratory, the signs they carried were angry. They railed against pandemic restrictions as an attack on freedom itself. They claimed COVID-19 vaccines were bioweapons. They demanded people listen to ‘facts over fear’, a sentiment I found particularly ironic.
Several salon owners and employees were on hand, too. Their frustration I can understand, as they watch other businesses serve customers while they’re forced to stay closed.
Few people at this event were wearing masks. Few were social distancing.
As they chatted and hooted, they encouraged passing drivers to honk their support, and the honks were nearly constant in the video produced by new media reporter Heather Green-Oliver, which you can watch if you clink the link above.
The anger and frustration that drew the crowd downtown on Saturday, I understand. I’m angry and frustrated, too. I want nothing more than for life to return to something like normal.
I want nothing more than to go to a restaurant and enjoy a meal. I want to get a haircut.
I don’t want to feel that my health and my family’s health is hanging in the balance anymore.
These are things we all want.
What I don’t understand is the willingness of those who participated to put their health and their loved ones’ health on the line just for the chance to display their anger in public.
I’m sure it let some steam out of the safety valve, but it won’t accomplish anything the protesters hope it will and will accomplish things (or contribute anyway) they don’t want.
Neither the premier nor Public Health Sudbury is suddenly going to relax restrictions because a few people stood on a sidewalk waving signs. That should be fairly obvious.
And, since the participants basically threw public safety guidelines out the window, you can bet some of these people will probably have contracted the virus at the event itself.
For the opportunity to stand on a sidewalk and wave to passing cars, they may have sickened or killed themselves or someone they love. The event could very well have led to community transmissions of COVID-19 that will drag the Grey Zone on longer.
And they won’t have accomplished a single thing for their efforts.
It is troubling to me that so many people still don’t believe COVID-19 is real or deadly, that vaccines don’t work or that they are bioweapons for the global elite (whatever that means), that masks equal tyranny.
If you believe you’re standing up for freedom and democracy by tossing your mask and crowding on a sidewalk with a pack of other like-minded souls, I don’t think you really understand the things you claim to be fighting for.
The rest of us are doing our part. Why aren’t you?
