Ordinary Men
I think everyone has that one photo in their collection.
It is the one that bifurcates time.
“Before Covid…”
“After Covid…”
For me, it is this not so remarkable snapshot taken in February of 2020 outside a Carolina Hurricanes game with my husband and youngest child.
We had no idea driving home that night that it would be more than two years before we could leave the house again without the tension—the requirement everywhere we went that we “follow orders”…
Everything I ever believed to be true about America…
Everything I ever believed to be true about the Constitution…
Everything I ever believed to be true about Freedom…
Everything I ever believed to be true about the Church…
Shattered in an instant.
I was not alone.
Many of you immediately understood it in much the same way that we did.
It was never about a “virus”.
The thing is, I still don’t know what to do with it.
I know they want us to forget.
I know they want us to pretend that it didn’t happen…
That it wasn’t that bad…
That we were not forcibly separated from our families in illness and death…
That we were not allowed to bury our dead or gather for funerals…
That we were denied medical care if we didn’t comply with “Health Orders…”
That people weren’t hospital murdered and vaccine murdered by the thousands…
Tens of thousands?
Hundreds of thousands?
Millions?
That they didn’t force us to choose between the dehumanization of the mask or the dehumanization of not wearing the mask…
That they didn’t force us to choose between the humiliation of being tested, discriminated against, isolated or full compliance.
That they didn’t force us to choose between our jobs and our ability to provide for our families and our rights to refuse experimental injections…
That they didn’t weaponize police force against churches, pastors, homeschool moms, children…
That they didn’t shutter our churches and take away our Constitutionally enshrined freedoms…
That they didn’t do everything within their power to pit us against one another…
The masked versus the unmasked…
The vaccinated versus the unvaccinated…
The compliant and complicit versus the dissident…
And today, six years later…
The confusion of “they”…
Who are they who did this?
They were Ordinary Men.
If you have never read Christopher Browning’s book by the same title, I would highly suggest you do so.
It is a deep dive into Hitler’s Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland during World War 2.
It is a necessary history on how quickly ordinary human beings can become inhuman.
To be clear, I am by no means suggesting that what was done to so many Americans during “Covid” is comparable to the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust.
However, anyone who believes that the “Soft Totalitarianism” we endured during the “Covid” years did not lay the foundation for different but similar human rights atrocities either participated in them or is simply dishonest in reflection.
What I cannot shake…
It was not just the behavior of men in legislatures, in governors’ mansions, and in the White House that shook my faith in people and in the principles of Liberty…
It was the behavior of “Ordinary Men”…
It could never have happened had not so many participated, complied, or looked the other way.
John Adams once wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Adams understood the most basic principle of our Constitutional Republic—that the Constitution was written to restrain Government—not People—from a tyrannical assault on Freedom.
It was written to protect us from the iron fist of government—not our doctor, our employer, or our grocer.
If “Covid” taught us anything, it is that the Constitution is wholly inadequate to restrain the evil of “Ordinary Men”—whether their power is wielded in legislatures, doctor’s offices, police units, or in Walmart.
Not only has the North Carolina General Assembly refused to acknowledge this reality much less act upon it—passing laws in the spirit of “Never Again”, they have spent the last six years encoding lies into statutes and ensuring that when the next “Pandemic” is declared, Ordinary Men will be even more empowered than they were in 2020 to do it again and to do it more swiftly and even “legally”.
1. In 2024, the Republican majority NCGA permanently legalized public masking, encoding the lie that masks protect people from illnesses (NCGA Amendment to House Bill 237, 6/27/24). The door is now wide open to new SWEEPING mask mandates. In 2020, the NCGA “had” to suspend and then REPEAL the state’s anti-mask law that had been on the books for DECADES (for reasons of public safety) in order for Cooper’s “Emergency” orders to be considered “legal”.
Don’t ever forget that it was REPUBLICANS who worked with Cooper to mask us for over TWO FULL YEARS. The next time “Mask Mandates” are ordered, enforcement will be swift and legal with zero debate. Masks are here to stay. Masked and hooded men are no longer even looked upon as a threat to public safety.
2. In 2022, the Republican Majority NCGA passed a law giving consensus rights to the Council of State instead of “just” the Governor to lock us down, mask us, vax us.
Instead of ONE Tyrant with authority to strip us of our Constitutional rights to freedom, movement, and body autonomy—North Carolina now requires the consensus of six tyrants.
Even under the Republican majority Council in 2020, they would have had the votes.
In 2026, “State of Emergency Mandates” would be a slam dunk vote as the majority on the NC Council of State are either Democrats or pro-Tyranny “Republicans”. Since 2020, there has been ZERO recognition in the NCGA that the Constitution does not give any legislative body the right to suspend the Bill of Rights or any Constitutionally enshrined freedom.
3. The North Carolina lawsuit that “reopened” the churches only argued that the church was as essential as Walmart. They will quickly shutter churches again during the next “Pandemic” when they close Walmart, as all major retailers have transitioned to mass “pick up” order capability.
4. The state funded, private sector coordinated (Fascist) program called “Testing, Tracking, and Tracing has never been challenged nor restrained by law. What they did to us stands.
5. Origins/ UNC/ Gain of Function/Baric experiments in the name of “patentable research” has never been investigated by the NCGA. There have been NO legislative inquiries or hearings. Is the NCGA actively participating in a cover-up?
6. Over the counter ivermectin has never been legalized. SIX years later, HB618 has made crossover. While several other states have made Ivermectin accessible over the counter, North Carolinians still have no direct access to affordable, life saving therapeutics. I have a Pfeeling Pfizer might have something to do with that.
7. Discrimination based upon vaccine status in private sector is ongoing to this day. Children who are not in “full compliance” with state mandated and CDC “recommended” injections are still being refused care by pediatricians statewide.
8. Private sector “Vaccinate or Terminate” policies have never been prohibited. The vast majority of NCGA Republican legislators STILL believe that the Constitution prioritizes the protection of business rights over the protection of individual freedoms.
9. Mandatory quarantine by class or category stands. With a declared “State of Emergency”, the stroke of a pen, and the “consensus” of the Council of State, all “unvaccinated” North Carolinians could be locked in their homes (or in quarantine camps?)
10. Zero comprehensive medical freedom legislation has been passed since 2020 under a Republican majority or supermajority NCGA. Since passing the most comprehensive Medical Freedom Resolution in the entire country at the 2025 NCGOP State Convention, we have not heard from a single legislator interested in sponsoring the coordinating bill draft we provided.
What they did stands.
Even more unbelievably, the number of North Carolina incumbent politicians who are now claiming to be “Medical Freedom” and are seeking endorsements from Health Freedom organizations is nothing shy of jaw dropping.
Dear NCGA incumbent,
You might be able to fool them.
You do not fool me.
I remember all of it.
Just read it. Spot on!! I have no idea what the solution is other than to remain a "renegade". Seemingly all the attempts at reasoning with politicians fall on deaf ears. Prayer is my primary (and likely the ONLY) answer.
When you’re in the midst of a battle—when you feel so alone— it is so scary to put up your hand and say, “I will fight because this is wrong.” Thanks, Tara.