By Daniel Nardini

I never thought I would do this. I am going outside my home and commit a crime. I will actively disobey Illinois Governor’s J.B. Pritzker’s executive order to wear a mask indoors at all times regardless if I am in a grocery store, in a pharmacy, in a restaurant, or going to a private person’s house. His executive order is not a law. It was not passed by the Illinois State Assembly, and not reviewed by the state courts. How can it be constitutional? I am fully vaccinated, and have been fully vaccinated since May. According to all research I have done, a fully vaccinated person cannot get the corona virus, even the delta variant (or rather their chances are next to nil). The Center for Disease Control has said that even those who are fully vaccinated may need to wear a mask if they in a highly populated area. This is not a law.

But according to the executive order, all people regardless of their vaccination status, or where they live in Illinois, must wear a mask inside. Since when does the governor of Illinois, or any other state, rule by fiat? Since when do they have total power to do as they please? Since when can they trash the constitutions of their state or the U.S. Constitution? Not every place in Illinois has the new delta variant in overwhelming numbers, and why is the governor using a one size fits all measure? We have been down this road already. Last year, we were told to wear masks and social distance six feet to “flatten the curve” to defeat the corona virus. If we did this, we could be out of the crisis in three months, Those three months turned into six months, and then a year, and now it is going into two years. Thousands of businesses were closed for long periods of time so people could not congregate to spread the virus. Lord knows how many businesses were ruined, how many business owners, how many families lost their livelihoods because of some of the asinine mandates that were passed then.

At the beginning of this year, we were offered a way out with the vaccines. We were told that if we got the vaccines, we could return to normal. So, those who got the vaccines were told they could “go back to normal.” The vaccines have proven effective even against the delta variant. Despite this, the governor of Illinois has unilaterally decided that the rise in the number of cases of the delta variant are “too high,” and hence all Illinois residents regardless of their vaccination status or where they live in Illinois MUST wear masks until he says they should not. In other words, we have gone back to what it was like before the vaccines were developed, and the governor can keep his executive order in place until he says otherwise. To disobey the governor will be met with fines, arrest and possibly jail. So, where does the health mandate for what the governor can do end and our right as American citizens and Illinois residents begin?

Even with the vaccines and the masks, and all of the social distancing in the world, there are no guarantees that the new delta variant can ever be defeated. Nothing is 100 percent. Yet, even with the new delta variant almost no one is dying of it, and those vaccinated are most certainly safe. So why are we seeing shades of 2020 again in Illinois? As far as I am concerned, this is all kabuki theater—the art of showing something that has no substance. It is all the act of the state authorities showing they are doing something. We have already seen the threats of mandates, masking requirements, fines, jail and arbitrarily closing down businesses deemed “non-essential” has done in 2020. All this has done has led to a ruined state economy, people losing everything including their homes, their businesses, and their livelihoods, and the corona virus is still with us. Apparently, the state politicians have learned nothing.