The hypocrisy in Washington, D.C. is not surprising, we just don't expect it to be so obvious.  
The veneer of civilization is all but gone.

What kind of country do we want?       
U.S. House and Senate members are all about power and elections and keeping Trump happy.

Silence. Is complicity.

Do you notice a pattern?    
Resist what's helpful and productive.    
Support nonsense.        
Make fun of others who try to be responsible.    
Cheer those who impede positive energy.    
Thumbs down on science.    
Thumbs up on conspiracies.

Silence is complicity.

Vermont ranks 1st nationally in COVID-19 vaccination rate.    
CDC data shows:        
Vermont falls just short of 80% vaccination rate;   
the U.S. falls just short of 40% vaccination rate.

N.B. Vermont was the first state to abolish slavery.

Do Republicans feel no shame? 
The big LIE rolls on.

Democracy is a project (not a gift).

A huge victory for the Affordable Care Act and the Roberts Court: the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act in a 7-2 decision.

"Some people don't want some people to vote."

Covid is not in the rear view mirror,
not for us nor anyone in the world.    
Sadly,   
Americans refused to meet President Biden's vaccination goal.    
I pause today to wonder if vaccinations are available to our classmates living beyond our borders.

Mitch McConnell considers Joe Biden a personal friend.    
He recalls being "the only Republican who went to Beau Biden's funeral,"
he thinks "Joe Biden is a first-rate person."

"The great lesson for democracies to learn is for the majority to give to the minority a full, free opportunity to present their side of the case, and then for the minority, having failed to win a majority to their views, gracefully to submit and to recognize the action as that of the entire organization, and cheerfully to assist in carrying it out, until they can secure its repeal."      
-- Henry Martyn Robert (1837-1923), author of "Robert's Rules of Order" and unsung hero of American civilization.

"Accounts of Robert's own service on many boards and in many organizations make clear that he himself worked hard to bring consensus about, and usually succeeded. What his rules aim to do is keep the entity intact and functioning healthily when consensus fails."

Mitch McConnell courageously told Kentuckians that he opposed the American Rescue Plan, that it passed on a straight Democratic party-line vote - not a single member of his party voted for it - that he is sorry his constituents are getting federal money they can use to invest in community policing and programs to improve public safety.

Civil disobedience is NOT what happened on January 6.

In plain sight, patrol officers at the U.S. Capitol were attacked as traitors and NOT American;

patrol officers held the line and protected our country.

The power of their testimony laid the foundation for Congress to do their duty -

to follow the facts to investigate the insurrection and protect us from future insurrections.

"We cannot escape history. We... will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us."
-- Abraham Lincoln 

"If the choice is to wear a mask and test once or twice weekly - or - to get the Covid vaccination, people will roll up their sleeves for the jab."

"During the years of Facebook's ascent, the world has witnessed a loneliness epidemic, the growth of political extremism and political violence, widening political polarization, the rise of authoritarianism, the decline of democracy, a catastrophic crisis in journalism, and an unprecedented rise in propaganda, fake news, and misinformation. By no means is Facebook responsible for these calamities, but evidence implicates the company as a contributor to each of them."      
-- Jill Lepore, "Facebook's Broken Vows How the company's pledge to bring the world together wound up pulling us apart." 

The CDC and the Winnebago County Health Department in Wisconsin are calling for masking in all indoor public settings - including schools - and crowded outdoor venues regardless of vaccination status for all residents. The Delta variant is increasing in Oshkosh as it is across the country and poses a significant threat to the unvaccinated - children younger than twelve are not able to be vaccinated and are thus especially vulnerable.

So what are the COVID-19 protocols announced by the Oshkosh Area School District?

Students, parents, and faculty are urged to get vaccinated if they are not already. Classes begin September 1 for full-time, in-person classes. Face masks will be optional for all students and staff on all school property and school buses; school field trips will again be allowed.

Mask mandates are about protecting children.

What is the rationale for the school district not to follow the guidelines set forth by our County Health Department and the CDC for all residents?

Face masks are required to enter all government buildings in Oshkosh - we cannot get a stamp, go to court, or pay our taxes unmasked. As residents of our communities, it is our collective responsibility to demand that our students and their teachers be masked in public schools which are also government buildings. No weight should be given to the politics of masks when considering the well-being of students and school staff. When the tide of infection hits our schools, as the present policy of optional masks facilitates, the harm to our children and community will be significantly worse than wearing a face mask.

Why not win one for public health?

Magical thinking is not going to save us from the coronavirus.    
Hard as it seems to be, we must trust the scientists and the scientific method, and join together for the common good.    
Scientists have been working on the coronavirus vaccine program over the last decade. A decade of work laid the groundwork for the current generation of COVID-19 vaccines. "Operation Warp Speed" may actually be an unfortunate misnomer which created vaccine hesitancy; the COVID-19 vaccines were built on 10 years of R&D.

Imagine how different our lives might have been if  LBJ  had shown the courage to tell the American people "The Vietnam War is over."