Standing Up

 "If you're coming after the rights of parents in Florida? I'm standing in your way." This is how the Governor of the pendulous state chose to address the confrontation brewing between him and the President of the United States. Or, if you prefer, between Governor Ron DeSantis and reality. "If you're trying to deny kids a proper in-person education, I'm gonna stand in your way and stand up for the kids in Florida. If you're trying to restrict people and impose mandates and ruin their jobs and livelihood, if you are trying to lock people down, I am standing in your way. I am standing for the people of Florida," Again, perhaps most importantly Governor Ron isn't so much standing up for the people he mentioned as standing up against Joe Biden. 

You'll pardon me for selecting this particularly low-hanging fruit, but when a Florida Man crawls way out on a limb over alligator-infested swamp insisting that the branch will hold him, I kind of want to be there when it breaks. Currently, the Sunshine State is also the Delta State. Children's hospitals in Florida are filling up with pediatric cases as variants of COVID-19 surge. Mask mandates? Not on Governor Ron's watch. Nobody is the boss of Governor Ron. 

Did you hear that branch start to creak? Those alligators below are not concerned with party affiliation. No alligators were involved in the insurrection on January 6. They are hungry. They want to eat. Red tastes pretty much exactly like blue. Just like chicken.

In this same way, a virus does not care about for whom you voted or whether or not you wear your flag pin on your left or right lapel. The virus kills humans. It's a whole lot easier for the virus to do its work when there are fewer impediments, like masks or vaccines. The President of the United States is trying to get everyone to make it harder for the virus to have its way. And oddly enough, so are schools in Florida. Some school districts are bucking the DeSantis trend of ignoring mandates. They are risking trouble from the state and Governor Ron who has threatened to cut funding for schools that insist that their teachers and students wear masks. South Broward County had given guidance to its educators that everyone on campus should wear a mask regardless of vaccination status. Then they got wind of Governor Ron's executive order. No mandate means mo' money. He has tied state funding to school districts' safety plans. If your school district mandates masks, don't expect your school district to get money from Governor Ron. 

So why do you suppose there are so many people getting sick in Florida? Maybe it has something to do with the governor "standing up" for the people. Maybe we should ask the alligators. That branch is looking mighty thin.