We are done listening to wrong message from Idaho’s pro-virus, anti-mask protesters

The behavior of the anti-mask protesters has become unacceptable.

Protesters showed up at the houses of Central District Health board members Diana Lachiondo and Dr. Ted Epperly, and in Lachiondo’s case when she wasn’t home and her 12-year-old son was home alone.

Anyone who is a parent could identify with the terror in Lachiondo’s voice as she tearfully told the board that she had to leave because protesters were at her house with her son there by himself.

Protesters also showed up in the hundreds at the Central District Health office to protest any and all actions that might be taken by board members, who had been scheduled to vote on a new health order mandating masks, limiting gatherings to 10 or fewer people, and limiting visits to correctional facilities and long-term care facilities. It allowed high school sports to continue and basically laid out some pretty loose rules for restaurants, bars and nightclubs while keeping them open.

Many reasonable people are convinced that the health order actually wouldn’t have done nearly enough to slow the spread of coronavirus. And yet, here were the anti-maskers, who apparently just won’t be happy unless we have absolutely no regulations at all. They won’t stop their faux-patriot temper tantrum unless we have complete and unfettered spread of coronavirus in the community. Even more than anti-mask, they really seem to be pro-virus.

Out of safety concerns, the Boise police chief and mayor asked the health district to shut down the meeting. Bravo, anti-maskers, you got what you wanted, shutting down any kind of debate or discussion. We’re not convinced that authorities did the right thing by kowtowing to protesters and essentially allowing them to shut down government business — which, by the way, they cheered when they heard the meeting was canceled.

To those pro-virus, anti-mask protesters: We hear you. We’ve heard you. We’ve been hearing you loud and clear for the past nine months.

It’s not that your message isn’t being heard. It’s that your message is dead wrong.

And that’s why the adults in the room aren’t listening to you. They shouldn’t listen to you. Your screeds about gut health and vitamin C, masks causing low oxygen, misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 and comorbidities, are just nonsense.

Just because an elected body comes to a decision that you disagree with does not mean that you have a right to bully and intimidate them until they finally give into your tactics and make a bad decision for the rest of us.

Many of you like to talk about how the United States is a republic and not a democracy. That’s correct. In a democracy, we’d all get together in the parking lot, like you’re doing, and take a popular vote for every decision made. But we’re not a democracy like that. We’re a democratic republic, as so many of you like to point out. In a republic, laws are made by representatives who are charged with making thoughtful decisions based on facts and listening to the experts so that they can come to a decision that protects public health.

It’s not mob rule, which is what you’ve turned this into.

Public officials sometimes make decisions that you may not agree with. (Now you know how the Democrats feel every January when they come to the Capitol.) That does not give you the right to intimidate them until they rule in your favor.

And showing up at people’s houses to “protest” is beyond the pale. It’s deplorable, and it certainly doesn’t win anyone over to your side of the argument. In fact, your irresponsible and infantile behavior only proves that the adults in the room should ignore you. Shouting and spitting in a big group without any masks shows that you’re not responsible enough and not worthy to help make decisions for the health of our community. Your actions, in fact, prove why we need a mask mandate.

You’ve had your say. You sent in your emails and you’ve posted your tirades on social media. Board members hear you. Now let them make the right decision for the good of public health and for the sustainability of our health care system.

Gov. Brad Little, this is what happens when you avoid tough calls and leave major decisions — decisions that you and your team should be making — to these local boards. We’ve seen it at the district health level and the school board level. Your strategy of pushing decisions off on someone else has led to this, and it’s clearly not working.

At the very least, you need to condemn these actions as forcefully as you can, and you need to tell these pro-virus, anti-mask protesters that they need to abide by the process and heed the decisions made by the people put in this difficult situation, not bully and threaten them.

We can’t even hold a virtual meeting safely. This is not governing. Who would even want to hold public office after this kind of display?

Enough.

We’ve heard you. Your message is wrong, and no amount of foot-stomping, pouting, yelling and temper tantrums is going to make you right.