Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Proletariat are growing restless

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Across the country the American People are waking up to the challenges to their freedom. In Loudon County Virginia the School Board had to shut down their meeting when a crowd of concerned citizens showed up to challenge their policies. In Wenatchee this week a crowd of 30 “unmasked ” citizens caused the school board to shut the meeting down and move it to an online meeting. When the meeting was moved online only 4 people spoke according to the Wenatchee World article.

In California there is a recall petition against California governor Gavin Newsom. Some people in the Tri-cities are attempting to launch a recall of Governor Inslee. Our local school board elections are mostly contested races for the first time in recent history.

The point here is people are becoming frustrated by elected officials who are growing increasingly out of touch with the people who elected them. This week I received a letter from a Leavenworth resident that expresses that frustration. I am offering it here as a Front Page editorial because nothing is more important to the continuation of our great American experiment in self government than the views expressed in this young man’s letter.

We are in a State of Emergency, but it is not the one the Governor has described.

By Pete Kornowski

Leavenworth Resident

The real emergency is the erosion and outright elimination of our representation in state government. A proclamation from the citizenry, withdrawing consent is in order.

It’s seems so pathetic to write my ‘concerns’ in a letter and send them off to be read by maybe no one. I am at such a loss, and feeling so powerless and unrepresented. I am compelled to do something, and it begins with this letter.

Should this "State of Emergency" in Washington persist indefinitely? In other states, courts have ruled "No"; but many Governors including Jay Inslee are clinging to unchecked “emergency powers.” 

January 28, 2020, Gov. Inslee declared a State of Emergency "effective immediately ... until rescinded". Ever since, he has exercised legal "emergency powers" without the regular oversight of elected representatives of the people.

Now, more than 500 days later, this “State of Emergency” drags on. I understand there is a need for legal emergency powers, that on occasion, decisions and actions need to happen quickly. However, we are far beyond a reasonable state of emergency when it comes to this virus. This is no longer an “unforeseen circumstance that requires immediate, unilateral action.” For the last 18 months, the discourse and decision making has been robbed from the state representatives and local municipalities and consolidated to a single office. This is not the way this State and its local governments are designed to function. A weekly “Proclamation” of executive orders is not the duty of the Governor. The will of the people in the State of Washington is no longer being represented.

Some Washington State Representatives have called for a special session to review and amend Emergency Powers, but unless legislators from the majority party agree, the discussion will not be had. Paradoxically, Inslee is the only one who can end his emergency powers by ending the state of emergency, which he has no immediate intention of doing. This is too much unchecked power for any branch of the government in a free state. It sets an extremely dangerous precedent, and the outrage ought to be equal no matter your party or political affiliation.

If the Governor and his office insist that we are still facing an emergency, is it not reasonable then to argue that the litany of uncontested, unprecedented government imposed solutions have not been effective? The social distancing, the lockdowns, the closures, the masking, the required masking, the vaccinations, the mandatory vaccinations, and all the micro-managing proclamations have not quelled the “emergency”. If anything, they appear to be prolonging it. At what point do we admit that these measures are not effectively solving our problems? At what point do we resume debate, discourse, and local management of local problems? At what point do we resume the checks and balances of the established governing branches?

These uncontested overreaches ought to frighten all of us. If you were to tell me three years ago, it’s likely a State government will soon have a list of private businesses deemed un-essential and declared un-safe to be open for an entire calendar year, I would laugh it off and go back to my latte. If last year you had told me when a vaccine is ready, it is likely that the Governor will make it mandatory to receive it or be faced with losing your job, I would have said “never in the USA”. If you tell me now that soon you won’t be able to cross the state line, be in a public place, or enter into a grocery store without proving you’ve taken a state sanctioned medical treatment, I’m listening, and I’m deeply troubled.

I am in fear because I don’t see the same outrage and passion in my peers.

I am in fear because of the gross complacency and compliance from men and woman who speak their outrage behind closed doors but play along in public month after month. 

I am in fear because the local news reports these “Proclamations” without question. Without even so much as acknowledging how unprecedented this type of government power is in the USA. Without so much as a curious question.

I am in fear of what the next “Proclamation” will contain; who’s shop will be closed, how many masks I’m “required” to wear. What needs to be injected into my body against my will. Where I can travel without disclosing medical records, and what the Science of the day is. 

I am in fear because of how few people seem to understand how a representative government is designed to work.

I am in fear because the slow boil of our representation in this state is nearly steam.

I am in fear because writing to my representatives, to the governor’s office, and to the local paper seems futile and hopeless.

I am in fear for the future of a free state.

I am not in fear of getting sick.

It is my hope that somehow, some way we can act en masse to compel the State Legislature to review the Emergency Powers Act, to at the very least include Legislative review of executive orders.

I know many of you are as frustrated as I am, probably many of you much more. Please do something about it! Write to your representative, write to the governor’s office, call these people. Start, sign and share a petition! Resist, question and speak out about these proclamations and mandates. It may seem insignificant as an individual, but with many of us, it is more powerful than anything. The time for action has passed! This letter is late to the game. These overreaches are outside our front doors. Take action today! Unless we the citizenry do something, it is not just going to magically stop. This government overreach is the real emergency!

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