[SVC: Don't miss the "Exempt Card" included here... just scroll down.]
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THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS.
~ Wise old man
Sarasota for Vaccination Choice (SVC): On Monday, June 29th, in a day that will live in infamy, the Sarasota City Commission voted to require Sarasotans to wear face coverings (also known as masks) in the City of Sarasota. The ordinance approved by four of the five Commissioners will take effect midnight on Wednesday, July 1st, and will extend for at least 60 days.
We say "at least 60 days," because we find ourselves in an unprecedented situation. As a Sarasota woman so eloquently noted on Monday while speaking (via remote camera) in opposition to the mandatory mask ordinance, this is the first time in modern U.S. history when the ~healthy~ have been forced to quarantine along with the sick. 
The net result has been the effective destruction of huge segments of the U.S. and local Sarasota economies and much of the societal good health and prosperity that flows from them. All done in the name of a greatly overhyped "State of Emergency" that appears to provide "well meaning" politicians and health technocrats with endless opportunities to impose draconian orders and micromanage civilians... such as what we witnessed Monday, with the City requiring Sarasotans to wear masks.
To be clear: We find the City's mandatory mask order to be needless, not justified by credible science, and a profound and dangerous violation of our basic liberties.
So, regarding the "60 days": Well, it's all becoming a very slippery slope, as another lady so compelling told the Commissioners on Monday, in opposing their ordinance.
We suspect that this particular bunch of City Commissioners just might relish the chance to extend the mask order beyond the 60 days... unless enough Sarasotans raise Holy Hell about it.
Speaking of... Here's a lawsuit filed against a mask order issued in Leon County, Florida.
EXCERPT:
“A temporary injunction of the Emergency Order will serve the public interest. The citizens of the Leon County public are burdened by the over-reach of their local government unprecedented in Florida history. The mask requirement violates both the Plaintiff’s and the public’s fundamental Florida Constitutional rights. It unduly burdens 290,000 Leon County residents. The public has a strong interest in protecting their rights and their ability to control their own bodies. Additionally, the Emergency Ordinance is written so vaguely that it lends itself to arbitrary enforcement at an officer’s discretion.” -- page 10
SARASOTA MASK ORDER: $500 PER VIOLATION, BUT NO CLEAR ENFORCEMENT?!
According to Monday's Sarasota Herald Tribune:
Starting at midnight on Wednesday, anyone over 18 will be required to wear face coverings in any indoor establishment in Sarasota. People are also required to wear face masks outdoors when they’re not able to social distance. The citywide ordinance will be active for two months and can be extended. [EMPHASIS ADDED]
...
Businesses and customers in Sarasota could face a civil citation of up to $500.
...
The ordinance passed on Monday does not specify whose responsibility it will be to enforce the mask requirement.[EMPHASIS ADDED] City Manager Tom Barwin noted that the city would need the support of local businesses to help with compliance.
Did you catch that last part? The ordinance approved Monday "does not specify whose responsibility it will be to enforce the mask requirement." Well, what could possibly go wrong?
In our view, the City just effectively "deputized" the most zealous proponents of mask wearing, to be the de facto police force of the new mandatory mask ordinance.
For some reason, the City Attorney appears to have had a recent change of heart, because, according to a June 26th article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, as recently as earlier this month, he had acknowledged that "the mask order would come with a host of problems, chiefly when it comes to enforcement and the cost of defending the ordinance in court."
Moreover, according to the SHT, State Attorney Ed Brodsky "does not support it."
SO, WHO WILL BE THE MASK POLICE?
Will they be the self-selecting, the most aggressively "pro-MASK"? And if so, will these newly empowered "mask police" be lording over many other Sarasota locals who are already suffering from unemployment or severe stress due to the collapsed economy and/or school closures, but who may not all share the same zeal for wearing face masks?
We fear that some of these likely encounters, to take place in Sarasota shops, sidewalks, or parks, between the mask adherents and the mask-refuseniks, may not end so well.
It's all a shoddy example of virtue signaling by the so-called "progressives" in charge: Be well intentioned, adopt the ordinance, but don't even pretend to offer any clarity or guidance about the enforcement. Just leave it to the mob to sort it all out.
OUR SINCERE THANKS TO THOSE WHO SPOKE UP AGAINST THE MANDATORY MASKS!
SVC extends our sincere thanks to those who spoke up against the mask order, by email and in person! We especially wish to thank the courageous people (seven of them, we think) who no doubt inconvenienced themselves and made the effort to show up at the City Hall Annex to speak on record in opposition to the Ordinance.
One of them spoke for so many of us, when he said the following (as quoted by the SHT):
“I never thought I’d see the day where they try to control what you wear, how you act and your behavior... You wear a mask, it’s just another way for them to try to split us up to divide and conquer.”
Martin Hyde, a candidate for City Commission, also spoke against the Ordinance. He took the City Commission to task for misrepresenting and hyping the data associated with COVID-19 in order to justify the mask mandate.
SVC will be posting more information as it becomes available, including possible challenges to this mandatory mask order.
In the meantime, we share the following, in case of interest to those who might object to the City's demand to wear face coverings. To be clear, we are not necessarily endorsing this approach, but this is still a free country, as far as we know.
FACE MASK EXEMPT CARD: USE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION
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SEE Also: Medical Condition Card [If you can, please modify this to apply to Florida Law]
https://www.thehealthyamerican.org/medical-condition-card
======= FLASH: IN RELATED COVID INSANITY NEWS ...
Joe Biden: I Will Force Americans to Wear Masks in Public
https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/06/26/joe-biden-i-will-force-americans-to-wear-masks-in-public/
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Journalist Absolutely DESTROYS California Officials on Coronavirus and Face Masks (VIDEO)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/going-viral-journalist-absolutely-destroys-california-officials-coronavirus-face-masks-video/
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CDC Now Estimates 22 Million Americans Infected with the China Coronavirus Making US Mortality Rate 0.6% – Confirming Our Estimates from March
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/right-cdc-now-estimates-22-million-americans-infected-china-coronavirus-making-us-mortality-rate-0-6-confirming-estimates-march/
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Why Keeping Schools Closed This Fall Would Destroy Public Education
https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/24/why-keeping-schools-closed-this-fall-would-destroy-public-education/
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WHO Says Asymptomatic Transmission Is Rare, Then Backtracks
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/06/23/who-says-covid-19-asymptomatic-transmission-is-rare.aspx?
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Gov. Newsom's Insulting Mask Wearing Order
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/06/19/gov-newsoms-insulting-mask-wearing-order-n553098
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Newsom won’t share details on $1B mask deal with China | Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-gov-newsom-wont-share-details-on-1b-mask-deal-with-china
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Newsom declares budget emergency and threatens to withhold funds over face mask order https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-budget-crisis-gavin-newsom-face-mask-threaten-funds/
[SVC Comment: What a bunch of crap! Can you say corruption?]
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