The Patriot Post® · COVID Passports?

Have you heard of the COVID passport? If not, you will soon. It’s a form of ID proving that you have had the COVID vaccine.

According to The Washington Post, the initiative is being spearheaded by the Department of Health and Human Services. But the Post adds, “The White House this month took on a bigger role coordinating government agencies involved in the work.”

Without your COVID passport, you may not be able to travel, send your kids to school, go to a sporting event, or perhaps even go to work. This is not an exaggeration, my friends.

Cruise lines have already announced they won’t accept passengers without proof of vaccinations. Rutgers University just announced that the vaccine will be mandatory for students to return to campus. And the European Union has already done it.

This is an outrageous idea that may well be illegal or unconstitutional. Kudos to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for quickly rejecting it.

To be clear: I am not anti-vaccine, but I know some with good reasons are. I also believe in freedom. I do not believe vaccines should be mandatory or that Americans should be required to produce their medical histories on demand wherever they may be.

The overwhelming majority of Americans are getting vaccinated. We have nothing to fear from others who choose not to. The evidence shows that the vaccines are highly effective, both in terms of preventing infection and preventing transmission of COVID.

There is something else very wrong about this. And it is hypocrisy.

The left furiously opposes requiring an ID to vote. President Biden is allowing thousands of illegal immigrants to enter our country with no IDs. Many are not even being tested for COVID. But Big Brother may try to force average Americans who want to participate in normal life to have a digital passport ID.

We’ve already made a lot of mistakes during the pandemic, including closing our schools which terribly hurt our children. We must not make another mistake like this crazy COVID passport ID.

Gloom & Doom

As we are vaccinating massive numbers of people and COVID-related deaths are declining, President Biden and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky tried their best to frighten the country Monday, warning that horror waits just around the corner.

Biden blasted states for irresponsibly lifting mask mandates, and he requested that governors and mayors reimpose them. There’s just one problem: In the states that have lifted the mandates, COVID cases are going down. In states that still have mask mandates, cases are going up.

And what about Dr. Walensky, who went off script to warn us of her sense of “impending doom”? Well, who knows. Maybe counseling would be in order for her. That said, I, too, feel a sense of doom, but for very different reasons.

My concern is driven by the fact that radical progressives control the Biden-Harris administration, and they need to spread fear to justify the control and power that the pandemic emergency has given them. They are trying to eliminate any possibility that any conservative will occupy the Oval Office again or that a conservative majority will ever govern Congress again.

In fact, I think if they could get away with it, no conservative group would ever gather to protest again. No conservative church would ever open again. No border would ever be secure again. No baby would ever be safe from abortion again.

So, yes, I understand what a sense of doom is, and Dr. Walensky works for the administration that is causing my sense of doom!

Illegal Immigrants First

Donald Trump’s platform was succinctly summed up by the phrase “America First.” The left’s agenda could be summed up by the phrase “Illegal Aliens First.” For example, the San Diego Unified School District is going to offer in-person learning to unaccompanied migrant children.

A spokesperson for the county education office said, “All children in California, regardless of immigration status, have a constitutional right to education. We also have a moral obligation to ensure a bright future for our children.”

Does that include the 130,000 children of San Diego taxpayers who are still being denied in-person learning?

This isn’t “white America” demanding special treatment, although some left coast lunatics seem to think that is the case. The children being denied in-person education are Americans of all races — white, black, Asian, Hispanic — and they’re all suffering.

By the way, what exactly are they going to teach these migrant children? Are we going to teach them that the country they just risked their lives to come to is horribly racist and hates children like them?

Are we going to teach them critical race theory, which claims that the most important thing about them is the color of their skin?

If the San Diego School District does that, and I fear it will, that’s a witch’s brew, a poison that will only pollute their minds and turn them against this country.

It is the exact opposite of what we did to make America such a successful nation of immigrants for so much of our history. We used to educate immigrants to love America. Most of them did anyway, which is why they came here.

But now immigrant children and our native-born children are taught that they are growing up in a country built on genocide and slavery, a country the president claims has never lived up to its promise and values.

It’s insane. No serious nation would ever do that. But now it’s increasingly difficult to tell the difference between the woke left and our enemies around the world. I wonder why!

The Day the World Dodged a Bullet

Forty years ago yesterday, the United States came very close to losing the greatest president of the 20th century.

That morning I had just finished briefing members of Congress on the goals of the still-new Reagan Administration. As my car returned to the White House, a bevy of DC police cruisers with sirens blazing rushed up 17th Street. Moments later more headed in the same direction.

Suddenly, I recalled that President Reagan was speaking that morning at the Washington Hilton, located in the direction the police were headed.

Entering the Old Executive Office Building, I was shocked to see men with automatic weapons positioned outside the office of the vice president. Seconds later, I heard the news — Ronald Reagan had been shot by a would-be assassin.

For hours the president’s staff gathered in various offices, huddled around TV sets, calling colleagues, doing everything we could to get accurate, up-to-date information. There was a lot of praying.

We had walked into office with a victorious Reagan only a little more than two months before, filled with dreams on how we would turn the country around after the disastrous Carter “malaise.” Thankfully, Ronald Reagan survived. But as we now know, he came incredibly close to death on that fateful day.

A few weeks later, a radical Muslim, Mehmet Ali Agca, attempted to kill Pope John Paul II, who also barely survived the attempt on his life. The pontiff and the president, with the able collaboration of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (who survived an assassination attempt in 1984), went on to lead the struggle against Soviet communism.

They ultimately prevailed. Both men believed that God thwarted the assassination attempts because He had important things for them to accomplish. They were right.

Today is a good day to remind ourselves that God is in control. Our country faces massive challenges. The headlines are chilling. There is incompetence or worse in high places.

But the God of Abraham, who hung the stars in the sky and knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, has promised He will not forsake us. For us it remains to be of good cheer and to fight the good fight!