This is a copy of an email I sent to my local elected official. In Rockbridge County we have an elected Board of Supervisors (there are 6 districts) and an appointed County Supervisor. I copied all of them (and Sheriff Steve Funkhouser) on this email.

Please consider sending something like it to your local officials.

Mr. Lyons,

Thanks again for taking the time to talk with me today. It is up to you, our local elected officials, to take a stand when the governor oversteps. Virginia is a Federation of Counties, not an Autocracy. This never-ending State of Emergency is unacceptable, and your continued compliance with it, and the various Executive Orders that have been enacted under it, is unacceptable. I hope you and the Board will re-consider acquiescing to the Governor’s increasingly restrictive dictates. I’ve copied the rest of the BoS as well as Sheriff Funkhouser, and County Admin Spencer Suter so we can all be on the same page.

Additionally, I truly appreciate your comment that there is research on both sides of the mask argument. I’m sending along some of my findings and hope you will send me yours, so we can have an educated discussion about the facts, instead of getting wrapped up in emotion. After all, masks either work or they don’t – it’s not a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of fact. Let’s work together to get to the bottom of it!

Here’s a great site that summarizes the lack of effectiveness of mask mandates in various states in the US. What’s particularly interesting about this work is Slide 4 which compares 3 states with early mandates, mid-summer mandates, and no mandates, with similar populations/geography (Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) and finds nearly identical case curves in all three states. 

Here is some data from a randomized trial done in Denmark that clearly demonstrates the ineffectiveness of masks.

Many of the mask studies done recently in the US and around the world have failed to use real world scenarios – poor fitting masks, spray bottles + mannequins, things like that. I am eager to see what studies you have found that show a likelihood of real world success of mask-wearing. I agree there are studies that show a properly-fitted N-95 mask may be effective at preventing some viral spread – but you and I both know our community (and even the CDC recommendations) are NOT using properly-fitted N-95 masks. Either we wear real masks and learn to use aseptic technique (sterilize your hands before donning the mask, limit use of a particular mask to a few hours at a time and then get a new one, don’t touch the mask while you’re wearing it, etc) or we admit that what we’re doing is useless.

And in regards to testing, it is clear that our testing model has been skewed toward more and more “cases,” despite seeing relatively few hospitalizations and very few deaths. The more you have to magnify a particular sample in order to detect viral cells (as is done with PCR testing) the more and more likely you are to find a positive result. It’s like standing in a junk yard with a BMW emblem in your hand, and thinking “Oh, this must be a BMW dealership!” Here is an article, from the New York Times, that illustrates my concerns. If we have to cycle the test 35+ times to find a “positive” result we don’t have any virus. The “surge in cases” is a reflection of this virus having already spread throughout the community (and the world) with fortunately VERY LITTLE negative impact.

A recent study from Oxford University proves that the widely-distributed PCR tests are utterly useless for detecting SARS-COV2 due to the impractically high cycle threshold required to obtain a positive result in many people. Do you know if there has been any discussion about establishing a standard to ensure our case count is an accurate reflection of illness?

Florida Governor Ron Desantis is now requiring labs to report their CT value with every COVID-19 test. This is a step in the right direction and something we should be asking Governor Northam to do as well. I have made calls to the VA Dept of Health in an effort to ascertain our testing/reporting protocols. Let me know if you hear anything first?

I am eager to hear back from you and look forward to our discussion.

{OvO}

I’m still trying to figure out how to push back against Gov. Northam’s 2nd round of lockdown + mask mandates. I am concerned, given the Health Director’s comments about mandating a vaccine when one becomes available, that we must do something NOW to protect ourselves from this and future takings of personal liberty.

Has there been any discussion about following a model similar to the 2A Sanctuary push last year by establishing Constitutional Sanctuary Counties in Virginia? I am frustrated that our 2A brothers and sisters were so threatened by Gov. Northam and his leftist gun control agenda that they would {righteously} storm his office in Richmond, but have done NOTHING to stand up for our human right to bodily and familial autonomy as he attempts to force our children to wear masks, trample our right to religious freedom, and take control of our social lives all for a “disease” that has a 99% survival rate! 

According to the VA Constitution (Article 1, Section 3):
{The Virginia} government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.

And in Article 1 Section 7:
That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised.

Are there any sheriffs or sheriffs deputies out there that might speak to this? Is there an effort underway to create Constitutional Sanctuary Counties in Virginia? If so, please direct me to that effort.

{OvO}

One of the best things about 2020 was finding our Great Pyrenees, Opal, in Amherst, VA in March. Her breeder takes livestock guardianship seriously, and started Opal and her littermates on poultry, sheep, goats, and pigs. She also spent time walking them on the leash, and taught them all to sit “for love.” We had to pay a little more, and wait a little longer, but it has been absolutely worth it. From day one Opal has been a loving friend to us and a stoic guardian for our flock.

It’s just about time to move the sheep to their winter paddock, and since Opal and Romeo {our 4-year old Maremma male} are both intact, we can’t keep them together. Instead, we’ll move Opal into the barnyard where she can keep an eye on the chickens. She’s been with our birds before, and didn’t have any issues, but we’ll still take things one day at a time. Our plan is to keep the chickens inside their PoultryNet within the paddock, to see how Opal behaves. She’s incredibly smart and seems easy to train, so we’re hopeful she’ll understand what’s okay and what’s not okay and will settle in to her new job quickly.

{OvO}

Editor, The News-Gazette:

Why is Virginia still under a state of emergency?

It is the state of emergency in Virginia that allows Governor Northam to mandate masks, social distancing, and crowd limits. But Virginia isn’t sick, SARS-COV2 isn’t as deadly as we feared and there is little evidence that masks are effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

The rolling seven-day average number of deaths related to SARS-COV2 in Virginia has been less than 10 deaths per day since Sept. 26, and an average of only five deaths per day since Oct. 11.

Although we are seeing a lot of positive tests nationwide, those who are affected and are less than 70-years-old have a better-than-99 percent survival rate due to improved therapeutics and treatment protocols.

Most importantly, a survey conducted by over a dozen medical institutions for the CDC and published in Sept. 11’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (Fisher, et. al. 2020) showed 85 percent of those who contracted COVID-19 during July among the study group either “always” or “often” wore face coverings within the 14 days before they were infected. More than 70 percent of those outpatient individuals who tested positive reported always wearing masks. Just 3.9 percent reported never wearing a mask.

With daily deaths so low, such a high survival rate among those affected by SARS-COV2 and masks apparently having little effect, why are we still under a state of emergency and a statewide mask mandate?

If you have questions about the State of Emergency, please call Governor Northam and ask him for clarification. I have tried a number of times to make contact with his office and have had no success – (804) 786-2211.

BECKY ALMY Kerrs Creek

Editor’s note: According to a “fact check” by USA Today following the release of the Sept. 11 report mentioned in this letter, that report is open to misinterpretation.

Taking the mask off to eat in a public setting had a lot to do with contraction of the virus, according to the study, the USA Today noted. The Centers for Disease Control tweeted about the study that “People w/ and w/o #COVID19 had high levels of mask use in public. Even for those who always wear a mask, there are activities where masks can’t be worn, like eating or drinking. People w/ COVID-19 were more likely to have eaten in a restaurant.”

The report, the USA Today writer explained, analyzed 314 symptomatic adults who received SARS-CoV-2 test results during July. Of those, 154 tested positive, which were referred to as “case patients.” Another 160 tested negative, referred to as “control patients.”

While 70.6 percent of the case patients self-reported always wearing a mask, a higher percentage of the “control patients” who did not contract COVID-19 self-reported always wearing a mask, “which suggests that their mask-wearing may have helped stave off the virus.”

The USA Today story also noted that just 11 patients in the entire study reported that they never wore masks. “So the percentage of individuals who tested positive and never wore masks was guaranteed to be low.”

The CDC continues to recommend wearing masks as a way of preventing the spread of the virus from those with COVID-19 to others. CDC director Robert Redfield said last month that the U.S. would be able to get the coronavirus outbreak under control if people universally wore masks and socially distanced for 12 weeks.

Researchers from the University of Washington’s School of Medicine recently predicted that current state strategies could lead to over 500,000 deaths nationwide by Feb. 28, but that nearly 130,000 lives could be saved if at least 95 percent of the public wore masks.

Link: https://www.thenews-gazette.com/content/emergency-order-mask-use-questioned

{OvO}

We have been RVers for a couple of years and decided to sign up for Harvest Hosts last year. After a trip this summer, and a lovely stay at the Morris Farm Market in North Carolina, we decided to become a HOST!

What is Harvest Hosts?

Harvest Hosts is a membership program that provides access to a network of wineries, farms, breweries, museums and other unique attractions that invite self-contained RVers to visit and stay overnight. For a yearly membership fee, Harvest Hosts’ members are invited to stay at hundreds of interesting locations around North America, and experience new opportunities to explore and enjoy the RVing lifestyle. The company’s goal is to provide meaningful experiences for RVers and Hosts alike.

Staying at Owl Moon Farm

You can visit the farm year-round and camp overnight in our hayfield. We offer NO amenities (no power, no water, no sewer) but the views can be terrific. We’re close to I-64 so we might just make the perfect stopover on your next RV trip.

Check out their site to learn more. www.harvesthosts.com

With so much evidence of the hypocrisy of mask mandates (oh, and there’s science too, click here) why are so you still putting up with this?

With 0-1 deaths related to COVID per day in the entire state, which seems like a pretty clear win, I’m still left wondering – what are we waiting for?

In the past few months, there has been an incredible amount of research and data collected to show, definitively, that Virginia (and the nation) are in great health, and that the continued panic regarding SARS-COV2 is unhelpful, and in fact, quite dangerous. We have never, ever, eradicated a virus like SARS-COV2 (or any other coronavirus, or any influenza virus) with vaccines, social distancing, or mask wearing, and to suggest that it is even possible to do so is simply anti-scientific. We have no idea what our population’s IFR is with annual influenza, for example, because we do not routinely test healthy people for the flu. So with nothing to compare SARS-COV2 to, every COV-positive test seems terrible – even though the overwhelming majority of people who test positive are non-symptomatic, ie, healthy.

We were told our strict lock-down measures were put in place to “flatten the curve” and to “slow the spread” in order to improve our hospitals, equipment and staffing. We were not trying to ELIMINATE the virus or to STOP the spread. Epidemiologists have long understood that herd immunity is required for a virus to die out. Unfortunately, due to the drawn-out lock-downs, we are 8 months into this and we still have a virus.

Thanks to science, we now have numerous successful treatment protocols and safe and effective medications that are improving the outcomes of most patients. In fact, we are seeing a better-than-99% survival rate in all patients except those 70 years and older, who, after age 72, have out-lived their average life expectancy in the United States. We simply aren’t seeing the firestorm of disease we were warned about in the now-debunked Imperial College study. With all this excellent news, why are we still mandating masks and limiting crowds?

We are as safe from SARS-COV2 as we are from SARS-COV1 and the annual cold or flu. We don’t mask school children for the flu – which they actually do spread to adults – and we don’t limit the number of people at outdoor gatherings for the flu.

This State of Emergency must end. Immediately. And we must return to normal. Not new normal. NORMAL.

This may come as a surprise to some of our neighbors, but it’s not just me saying so. I hope you’ll take the time to read The Great Barrington Declaration if you haven’t already. 

In addition to the CDC and VDH websites, I’ve also found this website to be very helpful in sifting through the data.

Creators Of Hope Rising, Revive Us To Host “Non-Essential” Outreach Event For Christian Voters. The live-streamed event will feature worship and influential guest speakers, including Dinesh D’Souza, Charlie Kirk, and Kirk Cameron

CHINO HILLS, Calif., Oct. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — From the creators of successful Faith outreach events such as Hope Rising and Revive Us, comes Non-Essential, a get-out-the-vote event for Christians ahead of the 2020 election.  

The event will take place at Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California, in front of a live audience of 2,500 people, and will be streamed on nonessential.live from 5:00 – 7:00 PM PST on Sunday, October 18, 2020. All speakers, musical guests, and audience attendees will be live, in person (not via video stream).

During the event, national faith leaders and panelists will explore and discuss the unique issues of 2020 in relation to faith and voting, such as COVID-19, national civil unrest, the sanctity of life, racial division, and more. Worship will be led by leading recording artist, and K-LOVE Male Artist of the Year, Danny Gokey. The ultimate goal is to encourage the more than forty million inactive Christian voters in the United States to participate in this year’s election.

“Through amazing worship, powerful guest speakers, and insightful casual discussions, Non-Essential is going to unite Christians together from around the entire country,” said Ryan Higgins, Co-Creator of Non-Essential and Founder of The Tempus Collaborative.

“Every election cycle, I’m both shocked and disappointed to learn how many Christians do not participate in our elections and it’s my hope that an event like this can make a historical difference,” Higgins continued. “In an era when attending church, worshiping, supporting our police forces, protecting the life of the unborn and so many of the Christian values we hold dear are being deemed non-essential, it’s time for the family of faith to stand and have our voices heard.”

For more information

XXXXX –

Hey! It was good to see you, albeit briefly, at the Farmer’s Market this weekend. I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to catch up!

This is a note that has been on my heart for a long time. Actually, it’s been right at a month. I pray you’ll hear me out and not take offense when I say that we believe insisting on masks and encouraging social distancing due to COVID-19 is spreading false information and even propaganda.

1. There is simply no science to support healthy person mask-wearing for the prevention of airborne infectious disease. Here’s a link to an article about Mask Facts
2. There is simply no science to support the need for the prevention of this particular disease. (Many sources to follow.)

We know that children are not at risk of dying of COVID-19, nor do they contribute to the spreading of SARS-Cov2. We know that tweens, teens and young adults are at an increased risk of suicide due to social isolation, insecurity, and covid-related anxiety. We know that testing is guaranteed to find positives even in people (and fruit!) with ZERO virus (source more), meaning that 2020 deaths are up to 94% mis-attributed to Coronavirus, and that widespread testing is not only a terrible policy on the practical level, it is no longer recommended by CDC (source). I recently learned that the CDC has been tracking what it calls “Covid-Like Illness” (CLI) throughout 2020 and going back to November of 2019, and found that we are at the SAME levels today as we were in November 2019. Meaning either COVID-19 was around then and no one knew/cared, or it’s gone now (Page 7 for the CLI information).

We know that the government is fast-tracking a vaccine that is neither safe nor effective, and that it is likely to contain a bioflouresence material (eerily called Luciferace; I am not joking) which will allow people to be “tattooed” with a “mark” to prove they have received the vaccine. (source)

We believe this is a hoax, perpetuated as a way to control the US citizens. Maybe just to mess with the election, or maybe to force us to take the vaccine. Either way, our family is simply unwilling to engage with organizations or people that are unwilling to look behind the curtain. (Ephesians 5:11)

Our family was excited to join the XXXXX family for in-person services in July. We had been attending church from home all summer, at XXXXX and at XXXXX (my mom’s home church), but were really craving that community engagement that can only happen when we gather together.

 We recognize that things are weird post-covid, and that you and the church, especially meeting in XXXXX, may be held to a higher level of scrutiny than some churches in our community. We know the temperature around the US is rising, which might make wide open gatherings risky. We’re seeing riots raging all around the country, which are not only condoned, but are in fact celebrated by the media and political elites. Casinos and shopping malls are open, but many churches are forced to remain closed, or have willingly refused to re-open. Courageous pastors like John MacArthur, Ken Graves, and Rob McCoy are being fined and threatened with lawsuits and jail time – for exercising their right (and duty) to open their doors to their congregations.

At first we were willing to say, Pastor XXXXX is doing what is best for the congregation, he is protecting the least vulnerable. Isn’t that what Jesus would want us to do? If some people are nervous about coming to church because some people aren’t wearing masks, it makes sense for him to send a note begging people to wear their masks and practice social distancing. So we stopped attending services because we didn’t want to be a stumbling block for others.

But the masks are a lie. The risk of this disease is overblown. The tyranny that Americans have willingly endured (even welcomed) is shocking. And by engaging in this charade, you are spreading the lie.

I’ve heard the Romans 13 argument plenty of times this year, summarized as “God put our rulers in place and we are called to obey.” However, to borrow from John MacArthur, “while civil government is invested with divine authority to rule the state, neither [Romans 13 nor 1 Peter 2] grants civic rulers jurisdiction over the church. …God has not granted civic rulers authority over the doctrine, practice, or polity of the church.” (full letter) We the People are the civic rulers in the United States of America. The Constitution is in place under our consent.

As a newbie in the congregation, I do not know the administration hierarchy of XXXXX Church. I know not owning your building puts you at a significant disadvantage. But those things should not be enough to stop you from serving the church, the body of Christ, with a vision for the Kingdom first and foremost in your mind. 

Regardless of where you stand on the COVID-19 “issue,” your alarm bells should have been screaming when your state mandated that churches be closed. Ever. But especially over Easter. Then into May, and June..? Throughout the summer you have seen the media blow this out of proportion, ginning up fear and encouraging citizens to give up their liberties. 

YOU as the pastor could have insisted on in-person gatherings from the beginning. Once gathering was allowed again, you could have said “wear masks if you want, don’t wear ’em if you don’t want to.”

YOU as the pastor can find a new location if XXXXX requires heightened and erroneous restrictions on your church. You could meet outside at a park, or at someone’s farm where there is plenty of room for folks to distance if they want to, not to mention all the fresh air for virus-killing. 

And if anyone (leadership, elders, staff, long-time members) doesn’t want to come, they don’t have to.

With an eye to our eternal heavenly Kingdom, and the real, literal second-coming of Christ on earth, Christians are told to expect a falling away. We are called to jump into the refiner’s fire, to be willing to be uncomfortable, unpopular, even martyred! We are not called to go along to get along. We are not called to put up with tyranny. We are called to be discerning and when we find false teaching we are called to shout the Truth.

Getting kicked out of XXXXX or losing an elder or two is nothing compared to the risk of spreading falsehoods – especially within a community of people who are looking to you for guidance.

We want to attend a church with a pastor that is willing to take a stand. Are you that pastor?

{OvO}

We are so excited to be a founding vendor of the Kerrs Creek Community Market! Our first market is THIS Saturday, May 30th, and we’d love to see you. Come by between 9 and 12 to meet us and some of our neighbors!

Hart Burn Farm
Corner of Rte. 60 and Fredericksburg Rd.
Lexington, VA

We will have yarn, roving and raw fleeces from our homegrown CVM/Romeldale Sheep.