Letter to the editor: Et ti, Brute?

Ashe County has been hit hard with CoVID, no doubt, like other counties in and around North Carolina. A population close to 3,000 residents between the towns of Jefferson and West Jefferson, many have experienced major health issues, directly or indirectly. It has greatly impacted our community; we all can agree.

But CoVID has also brought out our differences, as it would. We’re not all the same. We think independently. Or at least we used to. Our country’s leaders — local, state, federal — have intentionally and/or unintentionally fed us through slanted media sources half-truths, downright lies, and off-the-chart projections, instilling anxiety and fear in unprecedented levels.

All ages have felt the impact. I’ve lived in Ashe County for a mere four years. To date I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of the cultural and social dynamics and idiosyncrasies, its subculture...how people are related and relate to one another. And it disturbs me greatly to learn that as of October 2021 our Arts Center Council decided to put a CoVID policy in place that allows masked, card-carrying, vaccinated patrons the green light to enjoy an Ashe Civic Center event/performance while turning away masked, non-vaxxed patrons who haven’t been PCR tested (and showing a negative result for CoVID) within an allotted 72-hour period.

Might I add, doubling the cost to attend the Civic Center event/performance. Et tú, Brute? (“You, too, Brutus?”) This poignant line comes from Shakespeare’s famous Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1, as Caesar is assassinated at the hands of a group of Senators who are his colleagues. And amongst them, Brutus, his very best friend. “You, too, Arts Center Council?” As in other parts of our country, this is pure discrimination, the very by-laws that the Arts Council is set against. It betrays, not helps, the Arts patrons.

Studies continue barreling in that prove that the vaxxed not only expose others to CoVID, even at three shots, but can get CoVID themselves—and do! We all have experienced vaxxed friends or family getting CoVID. Compare this with those who have already had CoVID and have natural immunity to the variants, who are less likely to expose others and less likely to come down with CoVID in a life-threatening way.

Studies have also proven the “drop-off” rate of immunity goes on much longer with those who have overcome the CoVID virus naturally than their counterparts, vaxxed non-CoVID patients, with the unnatural immunity lasting only up to nine months at most. Doctors, internationally and nationally, know this. But the media chooses to ignore these facts. And so do a lot of our organizations. So why are the non-vaxxed, naturally immune patrons being discriminated against? False information leads to faulty decision-making.

The towns Jefferson and West Jefferson are far different from the other cities like, say, Raleigh/Durham. Even neighboring towns such as Boone, where an influx of students at App State, representing a confluence coming from all areas of North Carolina, are vastly different than our towns in Ashe. Whittling it down even further, there is such a small percentage of Arts patrons that represent Ashe, that it begs the question of why there are discriminatory policies put in place as though we are like these more complex, bigger cities? It’s time to put an end to this cookie-cutter, “one-size-fits-all” mentality based on false information and begin to swim upstream, instead of following what others do in our country.

It’s time we turn our attention to the real research out there that doesn’t line the pockets of NIH and CDC, and begin paying attention to the long-term social effects these CoVID policies have on our towns. And leave FEAR at the Civic Center doors instead of people.

Christy Palmer

Glendale Springs