Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Six Hundred Eighty Eight

Every Saturday in a park by our home protesters gather to march the streets against inoculation mandates and other quarantine policies enacted by our governments to protect us from the Dread Lord Grippe Reborn. They shout about how their freedoms are being infringed upon and how tyranny is afoot. Last weekend the protest was as large as I have seen it, as those gathering were in support of another protest taking place at the nation’s capital. Ostensibly that protest was against a mandate for truckers to be inoculated in order to cross the border into the United States, but their rhetoric made it clear they were against all quarantine protocols and the government in general. Another group gathered at the border south of here and blocked off traffic, trapping a number of truckers and the residents of a small town.

There is no doubt that our freedom has suffered in the past two years, with quarantine protocols enacted to varying degrees in different places at different times. The fact there is still a need for such strictures though is due to the protesters and people like them who refuse to do the one thing that would spare them from the Dread Lord and that is get inoculated. In demanding their own freedom from their responsibility to the rest of us, they have also denied us our freedom. The truckers trapped at the border are just trying to do their jobs. Those of us who live in the neighbourhoods where the protests take place are unable to go freely about our days where we live and must suffer from noise and chaos and risk angry confrontations with people who are looking for someone to fight with.

Among those protesting, both here and in the capital, are outright racists and Nazis. My love is afraid to go out when they are around. Worse, the fact that so many here have revealed themselves to be holding such hate in their hearts makes her feel uneasy when she is out on the streets. She thought she knew what people in these parts were like and now she has her doubts. I cannot blame her. I always knew there were hateful, selfish people, as there are no doubt everywhere, but to see so many and to see them so emboldened, presuming that the rest of us agree with them, is disconcerting to say the least.

It is easy to dismiss those protesting as fools. Some, no doubt, are reasonable people who genuinely believe the inoculation mandates and quarantine protocols are a dangerous threat and that they may become permanent fixtures of our lives. I disagree with them, but I can see how events have led them here. Our leaders, especially in these parts have been continually insisting that we cannot live under the protocols and mandates, lifting them too soon and then have been forced to reinstate them. Faced with that, how can you believe a word they say – I certainly don’t. They are craven and will do whatever they feel is to their advantage.

The core of the protesters – those most confrontational – are not reasonable though. They believe in conspiracy theories and worse. They think they are the heroes standing against a Dark Lord of their own creation. Their demands are incoherent – not only the end of all mandates and rules, but the end of the current government. They are certain all the Dominions are on their side, yet we had an election last fall where these very issues were on the ballot and they lost resoundingly.

We are all so tired of this, wondering if it will ever end. I suspect most people just want to be able to go about their days now that they are inoculated, recognizing the need for some care to protect those of us who are more vulnerable. In these parts we can, despite what the protesters say, except when they are around. I wonder now what will happen when various mandates are inevitably rolled back and the ostensible reason for their protests is gone. Will they stop protesting? I suspect not, for they are not done with being heroes yet. It is much easier than just being a person in the world.