I attended the Executive Council meeting with Governor Sununu on 10/13/21 at the Police Standards and Training campus in Concord.
300 citizens concerned with $27Million in Federal Covid Vaccine Funds with strings attached attended the meeting.
The attendees were boisterous outside – but quieted as they gathered inside the building.
100 of us filled the chairs or stood in the back with signs and flags. Our protest signs showed we were not anti-vaccine, we were anti-mandate.
About 30 State Police occupied the room with us.
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During the Pledge of Allegiance, the audience concluded their Pledge loudly, with gusto.
After that, the group again quieted down.
Steve Bannon likes to say we should pursue liberty by “Coloring within the lines – but coloring boldly.” Our recital of the “Pledge” at this meeting colored boldly.
Instead of simply smiling and saying, “Thank You, let’s start the meeting” – the Governor scolded the audience and warned us that our conduct was disruptive and would not be tolerated.
This remark left the large audience, composed of families, working people, seniors, professionals, and veterans, stunned.
Didn’t Sununu recognize us?
We’re NH citizens.
This was not a room full of ANTIFA activists dressed in black with umbrellas and teargas goggles.
Sununu and the Executive Committee needlessly exacerbated a tense situation, because no Public Comment item was included on the day’s agenda.
As a two-term School Board member, I know the importance of giving people time to speak and express their views.
Anyone watching the national news knows what hot-button issues the topics of vaccine mandates, shutdowns and quarantines are to Americans.
I was there to hear the Executive Councilors’ rationales for their vote aye or nay on the Federal $27 Million and compare them to my own reasons for opposing the Federal money. But I was also hoping to hear from audience members – especially nurses and medical experts with first-hand knowledge of the new vaccines and related issues.
Offering a “public comment” time slot would have quickly defused the situation.
The only people allowed to speak appeared to be state bureaucrats and officials (probably a few former pharma lobbyists sitting with them).
Lack of any Public Comment period only worsened bottled-up frustrations reflected in the faces of dozens of folks who gave up work time and other important obligations to attend.
On a few occasions, audience members did shout out a brief comment. They did not storm the stage and seize the microphone (as Leftist agitators have done at past events).
To calm things, the Governor should have issued an informal but empathetic caution – faked, if necessary – along the lines of, “We know you have concerns. This is an important meeting. Let’s hear from your representatives on the EC and hold your comments so we can hear them outline their thoughts.”
Instead, a truly needless powder keg erupted in 9 people being arrested.
Our 1st Amendment freedom of speech was not given procedural space, and this was the outcome.
In the end, Sununu was denied the majority approval he wanted.
And despite the hysterical, after-action fact- spin-checking by Chris Ryan, NH Journal, and other sad ‘news’ outfits – he deserved to lose.
Sununu carries around several odd rationales for receiving Federal funds which could have disastrous consequences for Granite State liberty.
These include:
- ‘Argument’ #1: Around a third of NH citizens remains unvaccinated. Sununu apparently believes they lack the resources to get the shots they want. It never crosses his mind that we don’t want the shots. Many of us enjoy natural immunity – or want to practice our liberty to use alternative anti-viral therapies which doctors in a free society would prescribe to them. Whenever I pass within 10 yards of a medical complex or a CVS the staff practically tackles me to the ground to administer the vaccine — or a ‘booster.’ NO, THANKS.
- ‘Argument’ #2: NH businesses which decide to mandate Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson shots for employees are participating in Capitalist free enterprise. I discussed this canard in another Grok piece.
- ‘Argument’ #3: Sununu waves off any concerns about the “strings attached” to the $27 Million in Federal Covid funds (Agenda Items 9B & 9D on Wednesday’s agenda) as irrational since, if hypothetical ‘strings’ do emerge NH can simply go to court and spend millions in taxpayer dollars on legal expenses defeating it.
How have court and SCOTUS decisions worked out for us lately, Chris?
And #3 closely resembles Speaker Pelosi’s reassurance about Obamacare – ‘We have to approve the Fed’s $27 Million to find out what’s in it.’ I picked my jaw up off the floor, after that one.
And last, #4: Sununu repeatedly ‘explains’ that “the other 49 States have taken these Federal funds” so we should too. As if NH citizens obsess over what the “other states” are doing.
Tone deaf.
The NH GOP needs to take a careful look at upcoming 2022 candidates. Will they commit to protecting New Hampshire’s independence from Socialists in Washington, DC? Or will they keep taking the cheese?
Hope it’s the former.
