The New Hampshire Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) recently made some waves in our state when they attempted to remove two children from their home after learning that the father had administered Ivermectin to his teenage boy a few days earlier.
The facts of the case paint a disturbing picture of authorities who simply don’t respect their limits. There was clearly no ill intent and no meaningful risk to the child. Ivermectin is a safe FDA-approved medication with relatively minor potential side effects. It’s available over the counter in much of the world, and in fact, many medications that are readily available at your local grocery store are arguably far more dangerous, including acetaminophen, cough syrup, and even Epsom salts.
Yet New Hampshire DCYF saw fit to issue a protective order, deploy their agents, and issue a “be on the lookout” notice to local police departments. They were willing to put the family, – including two young teenagers, – through the trauma of forcible separation and placement with strangers for an undetermined period.
Fortunately, the parents quickly figured out what was going on; they were able to move the children to a safe location before DCYF could get to them. Legal proceedings are now underway. But there is much more to this story, and it has everything to do with who DCYF was dealing with.
The father in this case happens to be a former New Hampshire state legislator. He’s the co-founder of a group called ReOpenNH, which has spearheaded the fight against mask requirements, forced business closures, and vaccine mandates for most of the past two years. He also leads a prominent gun-rights group in New Hampshire. He and his wife homeschool their children. Oh, and they’re also devout Christians.
The main story here is obvious to most of us; the medical establishment is colluding with government authorities to cut off all options that don’t conform to their carefully curated narrative. Merely talking about Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and vitamin D are tantamount to wrongthink. There’s also a disturbing subtext here, though. From the very beginning, hospital staff and DCYF agents have been viewing this case through a very biased lens. According to their worldview, independent-minded people are simply not to be trusted.
We first learned about this case from a viral TikTok video taken by a patient whose bed was near the nurse’s station where the DCYF personnel were discussing the case with hospital staff. While the woman in the video got a few facts wrong, she did give us this much: The father in question lives in Dunbarton, New Hampshire; and in 2018, he was a State Representative. That narrows it down to exactly one person: JR Hoell.
Somewhere in the middle of the video, we hear that DCYF staff is checking JR’s facebook page. As they scroll through his feed, they discover a man with decidedly conservative views. Christian. Homeschooler. Gun rights advocate.
“This guy is a nutcase,” we hear someone say on the video.
We can’t be sure whether that comment came from the hospital staff or someone from DCYF… but it explains a lot. The problem is not simply that JR gave his son Ivermectin during a bout with COVID. That was a start, but for the DCYF staff, there was so much more to be concerned about. People with traditional, independent-minded views are dangerous. Children are not safe being raised in those kinds of homes. Or so say the government agents at DCYF.
Back in 2008, Barack Obama drew fire when he characterized working-class voters as angry, bitter people who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” In a note of almost inconceivable irony, the Hillary Clinton campaign was quick to label Obama’s remarks as elitist. Naturally, of course, she feels the same way, – a point she made abundantly clear when she branded half of Donald Trump’s supporters as deplorables, calling them “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic… you name it.”
Herein lies the problem that frustrates so many conservatives today. We are simply not who you imagine us to be. This is happening by design, of course; if the proles are bickering over pronouns and micro-aggressions, few will notice that the treasury has been sacked. Of course it’s also a useful lever of control when some segment of the population refuses to go along. Hence “anti-vaxxers” are the new enemy du jour.
This tendency to depict normal people as hateful, illiterate Bible-thumpers is hardly limited to Democrat presidential candidates. As the lines of disagreement in our society grow sharper, this pattern has expanded to include anyone threatened by freedom of thought and independent action. We’re called science deniers by people who are convinced that men can get pregnant and have children. We’re extremists because we question the safety and efficacy of a novel medical therapy that promised to stop the spread of COVID, but very obviously does not. We’re “gun nuts” simply because we believe in the common-sense right to self-defense.
This DCYF case in New Hampshire is reflective of a deeper divide in which any divergence from approved behaviors and narratives is simply not to be tolerated. It seems most of the medical community has acquiesced to the collective hysteria aimed at demonizing widely available, inexpensive treatments that many have claimed are highly effective. That’s odd behavior from a crowd that believes we’re on a war-footing with this virus. Shouldn’t we be trying everything we possibly can?
The bigger problem here is that we’re no longer dealing with each other as flesh-and-blood human beings; we’re treating each other as caricatures of the “other”, labeling people as friend or foe and sorting them into two groups for appropriate follow-up.
Unfortunately, though, negative caricatures can sometimes have real-world implications. For JR Hoell and his family, it will mean substantial legal bills. The Hoell family will probably not spend Christmas at home this year. Instead, they’re fighting the DCYF machine and hoping to put this behind them. (To help them with legal expenses, you can donate at GiveSendGo.)
This is a developing story, and I suspect that even after the family court renders its decision, this won’t be over. I know JR, and he’s not a guy to take something like this lying down. It’s recently come to light that there may be at least one other similar case in New Hampshire involving Ivermectin and DCYF. If and when the time comes to hold someone accountable, these families will need some backup from like-minded citizens. Stay tuned.
