It was all about the freedom to choose for those gathered outside Smyrna Diner recently. Advertised as an emergency meeting by the group Patriots for Delaware, members of the public gathered in protest against Gov. John Carney’s mandate requiring masks for students, as COVID-19 numbers surge in the state. The meeting came a day after Gov. Carney announced that students from kindergarten through 12th grades must wear face coverings indoors in schools and at child care centers. The mask mandate goes into effect Aug. 16, regardless of vaccination status.
- Carney can take photo ops with no mask! — Cal William
- I wish that 15% of new cases weren’t children and that our rates weren’t doubling every few days, but that’s what happens in low-vaccination-rate states. Look at Louisiana and Mississippi, and the kids being put on ventilators. — Eileen Patricia
- New cases are not hospitalizations, and no one is stopping children from wearing a mask if they want. — Beth Gallagher
- We need to protect all our children. And in protecting them, we help in protecting our friends and family. It is not a hardship, an infringement on your rights or a point of patriotism. It is a piece of cloth that may be your best protection for your life and that of those you meet every day. Use the brain God gave you. Masks save lives! — Susan Waters Short
- If Carney really cares about Delawareans, he would stop the out-of-staters from evading taxes and shopping here.. — Ryan Fenimore
- I believe you mean “patriots.” There’s nothing patriotic about these people. — Frank Williamson
- Wrong protest focus. They should be protesting mandatory “vaccines” that are still undergoing the largest-ever government-backed human drug trials and only potentially prevent severe side effects, but still everyone can be and are being infected and reinfected. — Victoria M. Olds
- During the lockdown, I read more whining about bars being closed than children returning to school. Now that schools will reopen but with mask mandates, some people are still whining. Even if the restrictions were only that teachers wear masks and not children, these “mature” adults will no doubt still whine. I’m willing to bet that if the governor threatened to close liquor stores and bars unless masks are worn in schools or anywhere else for that matter, there wouldn’t be hardly any protesting because “how dare the governor restrict my right to get drunk and act stupid. You will wear a mask to school, little Jonny, and even keep it on during lunch.” — Michael Jones
- What’s the big deal about the kids wearing masks?! I have autistic kids, and they even learned to wear the mask. It’s really not that big a deal. — Stephanie Winters
- So much either not known or “they” are not telling us. If it is so bad that kids have to wear masks at school all day, then maybe they should not open the schools. — Joan Czeizinger-Sherrard
- If kids have to wear masks in school, then cancel Firefly. — Dennis Orlando Jr.
- Firefly is at least allowing only vaccinated or COVID-negative in. Anti-vaxxers on the sidelines again. — Sonny Ray
