I've been avoiding joining Tom Woods' online group of supporting listeners for years now. Not because I have anything against Tom Woods, I don't - he is one of the best, and most prolific, advocates for liberty, and one of the few sane voices (sadly, even among libertarians) in these crazy times. But I didn't want one more reason to spend time on social media. I've been doing a good job of cutting back on that and didn't want to fall off the wagon.
But today I saw this, from his daily newsletter:
Someone introduced himself to my private group, the Tom Woods Show Elite, this week with the following:
"Last year my daughter Abigail was born a few days before the lockdowns started in Massachusetts. She was diagnosed with an incredibly rare genetic disorder called CHARGE syndrome (a little less than 1 in 100,000), which has a 40% survival rate. Once the lockdowns kicked in it was literally illegal for me and my wife to see or be by our preemie daughter, who was convulsing in painful uncontrollable spasms for months, and on the brink of death.
"Eventually the lockdowns "relaxed" so one of us could visit our daughter once daily for a generous two hours. I cannot put into words how traumatic it is to have a daily conversation with your wife about who gets to spend the potentially last day ever with your baby girl. Thankfully she survived after multiple surgeries, but is blind (compared to death that is a blessing). However, developmental services for special needs children in Massachusetts have been deemed a "nonessential service."
"We have been lucky to have secured some in-person OT visits with our daughter, but it has been criminally illegal in our state to have critical in-person visits with developmental specialists to help our daughter overcome challenges associated with her disabilities. She is months behind and will face permanent developmental delays because of the lockdowns set forth by our lovely Republican governor.
"I joined this legendary group to share my personal COVID tragedy, which is unfortunately one of millions, to a sympathetic group of like-minded individuals. I'm finishing up my public health PhD at [institution removed by TW], and am a political science professor at a state school up in Massachusetts, so I'm sure you can imagine how I'm surrounded by COVID doomers 24/7. Tom Woods literally gave me the strength to look death straight in the eye last year and overcome it, so I will be forever grateful."
Many of you know that our daughter also has a rare genetic condition - although not as rare as this one. Our daughter has Dup15Q, and when she was born, she spent several weeks in the NICU and a few more in a less intensive ward. It was several days before my husband talked me into going home to get some sleep, and I still feel guilty for any of that time that I didn't spend holding her. I can't even imagine what these parents had to go through - only, I sort of can.
One of the main reasons I've stayed on FaceBook has been my special-needs parent groups. As awful as FaceBorg is, it is a great platform for groups (as long as those groups aren't about the things FB's masters don't want you to talk about.) But I have a really hard time visiting those groups now. I have a very hard time looking at the pictures my friends and others are posting of their developmentally disabled children wearing masks. Or bragging about how they just gave their - already neurologically compromised - child the Covid-19 vaccine.
These are people I love. And I love their kids. And I feel that there is nothing I can say that will make a dent in this. That I just have to watch as so many families "trust the experts" and go along with the madness. And I just can't watch it.
So I'm heading over to Tom's group - on MeWe of course. Maybe you'll want to join me there.
Oh, and some of you also know that even before the pandemic nonsense, I had been working on a plan for developing independent, mutual-aid-style homes and communities for those with special needs. If anything, the pandemic has rendered this even more urgent, and requires thinking about it on a much much bigger scale. I've put together a (draft) video presentation that lays the groundwork for my solution - and it's not only limited to special-needs care. There are practical ways for us to build free societies now, and we need to start doing that.
You can check that out here (remember, it's just a first draft.)