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Directing

More than three decades ago, I founded and directed an auditioned, adult choir. I was forced to leave the choir by the necessities of work, but at it’s 30th anniversary, in June of 2017, the choir presented a performance, incorporating every former singer who could come, and at that point, the three directors who guided it. I was honored to be asked to participate. Each of the directors rehearsed—very briefly—and directed six works from their time with the choir. Here’s an excerpt from my article about going home again, that concert and experience:

The two directors, Jerry Winter, the current director Pat Patton, and I, programmed six works each from our respective tenures. Directors are often ego-driven, jealous of their time and reputations. Not Jerry and Pat, who were as generous with their scarce rehearsal time as with their praise. I learned much from them.  As we did those works, I could see the memories dance in the eyes of the original singers. Only a single song required accompaniment–John Rutter’s For the Beauty of the Earth–and as Diana played the flowing accompaniment, we were transported back to those blessed early days, and for a few minutes, we were young again.

Music has that power, and that glory.

Three years later, Mrs. Manor and I retired and returned to our home. Could I come home again? Could I once again be a part of something extraordinary? I wanted only to sing, to contribute as long as an aging voice would allow.

Covid—and masks—screwed it all up.

Wyoming was far less caught up in the social distancing and masking lunacy than other states, but businesses that were parts of national chains had masking forced on them, and sadly, the choir decided to do it too. Believe it or not, there exist such things as “singer’s masks,” abominations that look rather like singers are trying to engaged in woke “pup play.”

I was less than pleased. I very much wanted to sing again, but was philosophically opposed to masking. I didn’t serve in the military and police work to so easily surrender liberty. Fortunately, I didn’t need to assert my objections, which some in the choir, believing they were saving lives, would have taken very personally. I discovered I couldn’t wear a mask and sing. No matter the type of mask, my glasses, under the pressure of moving huge volumes of air—most don’t realize what hard work singing on that level is–immediately fogged, and without the glasses, I couldn’t see the music. I reluctantly left the choir I founded, but rejoined in 2022 when sanity again broke out.

I avoided the businesses that were overbearing about masks. Unfortunately, in our medium-sized town, it wasn’t possible to avoid every one of them, so I occasionally had to put on a useless mask. I had to do the same for medical care, which rankled me. Our local hospital is still forcing its people to mask, which still annoys me, and I’m sure, them. It’s sad to watch them, when people walk into sight, hastily pull up their masks. I tell them they don’t have to do that on my account, but they can’t know I’m not a D/S/C who will try to cancel them, so they play the sick game.

Circa February, 2023, we know the economic, social and mental health damage social distancing, lockdowns and masking have done to our economy, our nation, and ourselves. We know the irreparable damage school closures did to our children. Knowing that, there still exist fascists who want to do it all over again. But we know even more, as The Washington Free Beacon reports:   

One of the largest and most comprehensive studies on the effectiveness of masks found they do almost nothing to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.

credit: biolibretexts.org

This, to sane people, must be no surprise. How can anything other than the kinds of pressurized biohazard suits found in chem/bio labs possibly filter things as tiny as viruses? It’s like trying to stop insects with chain link fences. Think of all the plexiglass barriers erected at check out stands—they still exist in my local pharmacy and bank—supposedly for everyone’s safety. Unless plexiglass can generate a Star Trek force field, such things are nothing more than Covid theater, feel good gestures amounting to nothing, expensive, worthless virtue signaling. A year ago, Mrs. Manor had a knee replaced. The smart young, masked nurse attending her told us we didn’t need to wear masks in her room, but we did in the hallway. I responded: “Ah! That’s why I’m not a medical professional. I had no idea respiratory viruses only propagate in hallways.” She was momentarily stunned, but quickly laughed and sadly shook her head.

The study reviewed 78 randomized control trials—experiments that have long been considered ‘the gold standard’ for medicine—which assessed the effectiveness of face masks against flu, COVID-19, and similar illnesses. It found that wearing masks ‘probably makes little or no difference’ for the general public, no matter what kind of mask is used. Even N95 masks, considered the most effective at filtering airborne particles, showed no clear benefit for health care workers.

“Probably makes little or no difference.” Translation: there’s no evidence they make any difference.

The study was published on January 30 by the Cochrane Library, a world-renowned medical database that is famous for its high-quality evidence reviews. It comes as a battering ram to the recommendations of the U.S. public health establishment, which urged children as young as two to wear masks throughout the pandemic.

‘This amounts to the scientific nail in the coffin for mask mandates,’ said Kristen Walsh, a clinical professor of pediatrics in Morristown, New Jersey. ‘I just can’t wrap my mind around the fact that some schools are still actively forcing children to wear masks, much less children who need to see faces to learn.’

It is our mobile, expressive faces that make our species unique, that give us the ability to communicate, to use language, to build all we have built. As a director, I give cues not only with my hands, but with my face, with expressions, with a nod of the head. Masking hides those signals, and not coincidentally, gave–and gives–the criminal thugs of BLM and Antifa an excuse to hide their identities and avoid prosecution for their felonies, not that D/S/C, blue state/city prosecutors needed an excuse not to prosecute them.

Though most Western countries opted against masking kids—in part due to concerns about speech and social development—many blue school districts mandated face coverings for toddlers, citing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Both organizations have maintained the masks are effective at curbing COVID-19, including in schools. But the guidance was typically based on weak studies with small sample sizes and few controls, limitations that critics said biased their findings. Many of the studies just compared places with mask mandates with those without them, making it hard to sort out whether it was masks that reduced COVID or other factors, such as that COVID-cautious people were more likely to wear masks.

Indeed, even in Wyoming, I still occasionally see people wearing masks, even outdoors, while alone. Sadly, some Americans still think the CDC and other Marxist “health authorities” have their best interests at heart. They still think they represent “science,” even though the human avatar of science, Anthony Fauci, has gone on to a heavily government funded retirement.

That makes the Cochrane review, which is based exclusively on randomized trials, far more rigorous than the studies typically cited in defense of masks.

‘Not all evidence is the same,’ Vinay Prasad, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote in a Substack post about the review. Randomized control trials ‘are imperative for recommendations that span years, or longer.’

Randomized control trials tend to be better than people like Fauci declaring: “I am science!”

More than two years after the start of the pandemic, some schools are still requiring masks. School districts in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania reimposed mask mandates in January amid a spike in respiratory illnesses. The mandates came after the CDC warned of a ‘tridemic’ of COVID, flu, and RSV, though cases of all three illnesses have significantly declined.

As of this writing, no major media outlets have covered the Cochrane review. It’s a sharp contrast to the reception of other, more pro-mask studies, which were the subject of glowing write-ups in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the Washington Post.

I’m sure those august news organizations immediately reported on this actually scientific study and its clear result?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not respond to a request for comment.

What a surprise. Our primary state propaganda organs continue to suppress actual science.

With the 2024 elections now garnering air time, we can be certain those so concerned with our welfare will do their best to invent another virus, the better to re-impose the totalitarian “health care” measures that so badly failed and that wrought such destruction, and the better to commit sufficient electoral fraud. This time, I suspect, Americans, and hopefully not only in red states, will say not only “no,” but “hell no!” And this time, the actual “science” will be on their side—not that D/S/Cs and health Nazis—I know: same thing–will care.  Science must unify, not divide, us.