Another day, another battle. We won at the pool. We won the battle of the Covid tests. We won the Battle of Supersol and Battle of the Maskless Shabbat.
Today, we won the Battle of Preschool.
We have a four year old daughter. When the End of the World as we Know It happened, my son was 5, in kindergarten. He is now in 2nd grade. I used to play a game with him at kindergarten before leaving him for the day, in the mornings. From March 2020 until today, I didn’t play with my son, nor have I with my daughter in the mornings at preschool.
Today, my wife and I decided to open up another front. We went in to the preschool, without masks, we sat down, and we played with her. For the first time in nearly 2 years, we played with our child in kindergarten.
We were immediately harassed about masks. Told to put one on. We said no, and kept playing. They move all the other kids away from us, as if we’re endangering them. Then another adult comes in and says we’re endangering the children.
“I don’t want to fight with you,” she says, “but you’re endangering us all.”
“Then stop fighting with me and be quiet,” I say.
There was a back and forth for a while, something about obedience versus rationality, we finished a puzzle with my daughter while being attacked. It was very unpleasant.
“There are rules,” says the adult. Not sure if she was staff or not. Uh huh.
We walk out, my wife not feeling well emotionally about this. Neither am I. I don’t want to attack anyone.
We get home, and there is city security at our gate. He used to be my neighbor. He asks if we had problems at the kindergarten this morning. I say no. He says something about masks, I say we are exempt. He asks if we have an exemption in writing, I say you’re not allowed to even ask that.
He says he wants to talk to me for my own good, as a friend. I say I don’t see you as a friend. I see you as an enemy. Then he gets mad and says, “OK, now I’m changing my tone with you!”
“Oh no, what do I do now? You’re changing your tone!”
“Look,” he says, “You come into the kindergarten again without a mask, and you’re going to get a really big fine!”
“Good,” I say. “Go ahead. Fine me. I’ll fight it in court.”
He turns his back, and starts to walk away. As he’s walking out, he says, “You’ve always been a couple of idiots!”
Heh, he couldn’t resist a childish swipe after a smushed his ego.
Hours later, I go to pick up my daughter. As I get close to the kindergarten, there are three cops waiting for me. I know these cops. One of them is the Chief. They booked me back in December for bareface and never gave me a ticket for it though. He knows me. The basic points of the conversation, skipping the dumber portions of the back and forth. It took about 3-4 minutes I think.
“What’s your name?” he says.
“Did I do something?”
“You’re talking to a cop. Tell me your name.”
“Do I have to answer that? Tell me what I did. Can I pick up my daughter?”
“I know you. We’ve met before. You can’t come into a Kindergarten and yell at people. It’s bad for the children.”
“I came in to play with my daughter and they told me I was endangering children.”
“Look, next time you just say you have an exemption from masks and that’s it. You can’t just go in to a kindergarten, disrespect the teacher in front of kids, because later the kids grow up and think they can stab policemen.” (Yes, he actually said this.)
“I’m against violence. But I’ve said I am exempt many times before and they still bother me.”
“I will tell the teacher that you have an exemption and not to bother you then.”
“So I can come in tomorrow, to the kindergarten, without a mask?”
“Yes, just be respectful.”
“Of course. Thank you for your help. I really appreciate this conversation and I respect you.” I say. I’m serious. This cop is sort of reasonable. Still trying to intimidate me, but sort of reasonable.
I pick up my daughter and go home.
There are no Covid rules. It’s all a sham. Just keep acting as if they do not exist. Because they don’t. I wonder what I’m going to fight next.
Kindergarten conquered. כיבוש ארץ ישראל.
From The Jewish Libertarian, here.