Jefferson County Commissioners raised a host of disturbing issues by paying $14,999 for 20 county employees to attend an “Anti-Racist Literacy Workshop”. The contract between USAWA Consulting LLC and Jefferson County specifies the training will be customized “to highlight COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy and public health messaging … in reaching a goal of increasing vaccine-uptake among marginalized populations in Jefferson County.”
The course outline submitted by USAWA indicates that the training is designed to “dismantle White supremacy” from within participants “and the culture around them.” Workshop “objectives” include:
- understanding the impact of systemic oppression on maintaining white, male, heterosexual privilege;
- developing an understanding how such oppression inhibits diversity, equity and inclusion; and
- promoting an understanding of racial inequality and an anti-oppressive identity in Jefferson County.
Furthering these objectives will purportedly increase vaccine uptake among marginalized populations.
The revised grant application, dated May 9, 2022, reveals the lack of documentation supporting the existence of vaccine hesitancy among marginalized communities. Documentation is also lacking which establishes the anti-racist training will promote the County’s goal of increasing vaccine-uptake in certain communities. Moreover, if there is no measurable data to identify the problem, it is not possible to measure whether the County’s anti-racist workshops accomplish the stated goal of increasing vaccinations.
The following statements in the County’s grant application reveal the lack of data to support a “need” for anti-racist literacy training:
• “[W]e estimate 4,700 people in our county are unvaccinated. We do not have much data [about] how many of those unvaccinated are part of a marginalized demographic.”
• “Anecdotal evidence also indicated most of our unvaccinated…residents were firm in their decision not to vaccinate. They are no longer open to hearing information from public health …because they do not believe we are a trusted source of information, largely due to the parallel pandemic of mis and disinformation.”
Anecdotal evidence does not constitute verifiable data documenting justification for a grant totaling thousands of tax dollars. Moreover, the County itself states that unvaccinated groups do not trust public health and are no longer open to hearing more information. Furthermore, the County provides no support for the apparent position that the anti-racist literacy program will effectively change “firm” anti-vaccine beliefs or promote increased trust in the public health department personnel.
It should be noted the advertisement and bidding requirements for the initial $9,999 contract were avoided because it was for less than $10,000 and approved by the County Commissioners. (Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 36.32.245(3) & Jefferson County Code (JCC) 3.55.070.) On August 22, 2022, the Commissioners approved an additional $5,000 for this contract totaling $14,999.
The Agenda Request stated that:
Increase in funding is requested due to the need for more consultation hours than initially budgeted for in order to customize the training. In addition, “make up” sessions will be scheduled for those who miss sessions of the training. Lastly, there was a greater demand for registrations than originally anticipated.
As usual, the item appeared on a Consent Agenda and was passed without discussion. However, JCC 3.55.070(5) provides that: “No contract or purchase shall be subdivided to avoid the requirements of this chapter.”
In this case, there is effectively one contract for services and the advertisement and bidding requirements were by-passed by having two contracts for less than $10,000 each. The creation of two separate contracts under $10,000 is arguably contrary to JCC 3.55.070(5).
The importance of the competitive bidding process was summarized by the Municipal Research Services Center (MRSC), a nonprofit organization that Jefferson County utilizes:
Even when it is not legally required, the submission of municipal purchases and contracts to competitive bidding is generally favored in order to secure the best bargain for the public and to discourage favoritism, collusion, and fraud. Edwards v. Renton, 67 Wn.2d 598, 602, 409 P.2d 153 (1965). Accordingly, requirements in statutes, charter provisions, and ordinances to that effect are liberally construed in favor of bidding, and exceptions are narrowly construed. See Gostovich v. West Richland, 75 Wn.2d 583, 587, 452 P.2d 737 (1969).
Notably, County Commissioners also awarded an 18-month contract totaling $18,000 to USAWA for the development and execution “of a Communications Action Plan (CAP) to support Harm Reduction in Jefferson County as part of the Behavioral Health Consortium’s effort to end overdose deaths in Jefferson County.” Again, the bidding process was avoided by a citation to JCC 3.55.170 which permitted awarding a contract without competitive bidding when there is “only one source of the required… service.”
The current county regulation adopted in 2020, JCC 3.55.020, references the state statute which requires that a “clearly and legitimately” single source may avoid the bidding process. A letter from the Directors of Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) and Behavioral Health Consortium (BHC) to the County Administrator and Chief Deputy Prosecutor, dated May 25, 2022, states the bid process exception applies because USAWA “has already worked with BHC’s key stakeholders to cement critical relationships in many pockets of the” county and is familiar with the county’s substance abuse and mental health issues.
This familiarity came from awarding USAWA a prior $2,455 contract in early 2022 to support BHC’s goal of ending overdose deaths in Jefferson County. Hence, the familiarity with the issues cited by the County to justify a “single source” exemption to the bidding requirements for the current contract appears to have resulted (at least in part) from another contract that was also exempt from the bidding process for being under $10,000.
It does not appear County Commissioners bothered to consider other local, politically neutral organizations devoted to eliminating or reducing suicides and substance abuse for this grant, nor that alternative organizations do exist.
Jefferson County is one of the poorer counties in the State of Washington with serious needs in the areas of housing, education, jobs and food. The 2021 Healthy Youth Survey also documents significant issues faced by our school-aged children following COVID restrictions.
Is it fiscally responsible for Jefferson County Commisioners to side step the bidding process and spend thousands of dollars on “Anti-Racist Literacy Training” when they have provided no data nor documentation nor measurable outcomes to support a community need for that?
Rosemary Schurman has practiced law in the State of Washington for over 40 years, and devoted the last 20 years of her practice to representing disabled individuals. She has lived in Jefferson County since 2003.
Why doesn’t this surprise me lol, yes very interesting is the really high suicide rate here…..so am I ready this right when it says they rejected a bid because it was to low lol. Didn’t I hear a very large sum of money went missing in Jefferson County not to long ago, I wonder what happened there lol
Good research, well said. It’s an absolutely ridiculous situation.
I informed myself about the consulting firm wondering what their experience/ expertise educational background is because they seem to have been the one and only choice for the commission. I felt like I was going thru ‘the looking glass’ most of the consultants individual resume I did not understand and some of it unfortunately I did and most I would rather not know.
https://usawaconsulting.com/usawa-team/
Here in Clallam, I serve on the Homeless Task Force. This Anya Callahan gave us a presentation of 45 minutes about stigmatizing drug addicts. Care-bear stuff. I expect the county paid for it. There’s a network of these nonprofits that have the same officers and similar websites and videos. And the county officials are just shoveling money at them.
We didn’t elect them to do it. Did they get honey trapped into it by drag queens?
I looked at the board meeting minutes regarding the grant in question that initiated this article and read the consent agenda. Line agenda 7 states the approval $45,000 for buliding a Covid 19 confidence project. Line agenda 8 approves the original $9,999 for anti litercy training. What does this anti discriminatory literacy training at the cost of $15,000 have anything to do with Covid 19? I read the grant proposal and it steered more towards the Covid 19 confidence than anti racism training. Is this really costing the tax payers a running total of $60,000 for Covid 19 confidence? This is an exorbitant amount of tax payer money for a guestimate of 4,700 residents who have made their own decision regarding the matter.
Yes, and how many of those 4,700 were deterred from taking the jab by insufficient Jefferson County employee “anti-racist literacy”?
Not only did Commissioners give away $9,999 for an “Anti-Racist Literacy Workshop” to increase vaccine uptake, in the same June 6 consent agenda they also frittered away $45,000 for “Building a COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Project”. Apparently $45,000 plus $9,999 didn’t inspire enough confidence in the dangerous and ineffective emergency-use jabs, so another no-bid $5,000 give-away was needed on August 22. Quite the confidence game.
Commissioners clarified in response to 9/19 public comment that this $45,000 was actually money coming in from NACCHO (National Association of County and City Health Officers), not money going out from Jefferson County taxpayers, which was used to hire someone to increase vaccine uptake among marginalized communities.
I am an “old white guy”, vaccinated and boosted, and in my view spending a scarce resource on “covid 19 confidence” and “anti racist training” is a waste of money.
Does anyone really think that, at this point in the history of covid, someone will be convinced they should be vaccinated? A very hard sell indeed with the overwhelming evidence of infections even after vaccination.
I’m curious if the “racist training” isn’t more along the lines of normalizing alternate self identified life styles.
The legality of the awards seems to border on, well, not exactly kosher.
My assessment would be not that one resident has based any of their medical decisions on insufficient Jefferson County employee “anti-racist literacy”. I wouldn’t think that such personal decisions hang in the balance of “anti-racist literacy” in the first place.
I looked up this USAWA and their staff resumes. This Sam/Samantha Krehell claims to be a West Point graduate. I call B.S.
Thank you for highlighting this information for the public. Does not make sense. Reminds me of “Turtles All the Way Down”, which is a great book written in 2019 dissecting vaccine safety and efficacy studies. Making the choice to fund a group because we used them before when they were chosen initially without following protocol. No solid basis for the present decision.
And why is racism and covid gene therapy shot uptake strategy in the same package? The smoke and mirrors continues, all the way down.
Beyond the utter waste of taxpayer dollars and the absurdity of trying to link anti-racist literacy training to vaccine uptake is the ongoing agenda to pressure people who know better into getting dangerous shots. As with so much of the propaganda out there, the stated premise and supporting declarations are a total inversion of reality.
As Rosemary noted, the county even acknowledged on their application, “We do not have much data [about] how many of those unvaccinated are part of a marginalized demographic.” A modicum of research would have established that it is not our marginalized populations who “do not trust public health and are no longer open to hearing more information” — it is predominantly the highly literate who have done their research who have not and will not ever get one of these shots. We know that “the parallel pandemic of mis and disinformation” is actually coming from the very government and health authorities who are behind this campaign.
As the Free Press has documented in numerous articles, the shots are far more dangerous than the virus. Negative efficacy — which means the vaccinated are more likely to catch Covid, be hospitalized and die from it — is well-established in the data. Just a few recent headlines:
Vaccine Effectiveness Hits as Low as Minus 300% – as UKHSA Announces it Will No Longer Publish the Data
“Ethically Unjustifiable” – Scientists from Harvard & Johns Hopkins Found Covid-19 Vaccines 98 Times Worse Than the Virus
A new report prepared for the Liberal Party of Canada shows that the vaccines have no benefit for those under 60
Denmark stops vaccinations for people under 50 because the vaccine is more dangerous than Covid
Another article about Denmark’s decision affirms what we’ve been saying all along — that there is “more effective natural immunity in the unvaccinated” than in the vaxxed.
“Denmark joins a long list of other European nations to either ban or place wide ranging restrictions on who can get the vaccines. Finland, Sweden, England, German, and France all have age restrictions on who is allowed to get vaccinated and/or boosted.”
The age caps are arbitrary. As the dramatic rise in all-cause mortality is showing, these shots are devastating all ages.
The vax holdouts in Jefferson County would have benefited far more from the $60,000 outlay for Covid 19 confidence for 4,700 residents (thank you for that running total, Dawn Whitney) had the county just given each of us the $1276 of taxpayer dollars that it has cost so far per person for this nonsense.
When I read the grant application for “Equipping Local Health Departments to Build COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Project – Team Charter PROJECT NAME: Building trust in public health in the COVID-19 Pandemic COUNTY, CITY, AND STATE: Jefferson County, Port Townsend, Washington State DATE REVISED: 05/09/2022”, All that I thought was: this is all about 100% vaxx rate for Jefferson County.
As an example of my opinion that it’s about 100% vaxx rate: (Taken verbatim from the grant application) “Our unvaccinated population may also be experiencing a language barrier. The largest non-white population in the county are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census. Five percent of the total county population speaks a language other than English at home.
This is readily available information from the 2020 census for Jefferson County that completely refutes the population statistics and language barrier statement the county provided in the grant application:
“The 5 largest ethnic groups in Jefferson County, WA are White (Non-Hispanic) (87.2%), Two+ (Non-Hispanic) (4.13%), White (Hispanic) (2.59%), Asian (Non-Hispanic) (1.68%), and American Indian & Alaska Native (Non-Hispanic) (1.58%).
None of the households in Jefferson County, WA reported speaking a non-English language at home as their primary shared language. This does not consider the potential multi-lingual nature of households, but only the primary self-reported language spoken by all members of the household.
98% of the residents in Jefferson County, WA are U.S. citizens.”
I find this statement from the grant application very interesting:
“Mistrust among the vaccine-hesitant deepened in our county when we hired a new health officer, Dr. Allison Berry, in July 2021. Dr. Berry was the first in the nation to put a health order into place that required restaurant patrons to show proof of vaccination if dining indoors. Protesters saw that action as our local government “forcing” people to get vaccinated. That kind of messaging deepened the rift between public health and those we try to serve.”
This statement from the grant application is telling of their misrepresentation of the percentage of Hispanic/non-English speaking households bologna the County used in the grant application as well as the success of the never ending fear campaign:
“Our health department reorganized and reinforced communications, creating two full-time communicator roles. One of those roles is specifically dedicated to COVID-19 communications. Those employees built a COVID-19 alert section to the website with information in English and in Spanish. They maintained resource directories, including up-to-date information about where to get vaccinated and tested. We continue to post case rate data Monday through Friday, helping keep the public informed about transmission risks. Our communications team also continues to complete trainings in how to combat mis, dis and mal-information. Meanwhile, our front desk has fielded hundreds, if not thousands, of phone calls from the public who called in for information (and sometimes to express fear and frustration about pandemic-related concerns).”
I rest my case
Ana, I completely disagree with you regarding the efficacy of vaccinations. Your cited articles do nothing to sway me otherwise as I do not find them credible. But I think arguing over whether vaccines are safe and effective or dangerous and ineffective is distracting and not germane to this article.
However, linking people’s decision to not get vaccinated with racism and funding anti-racism literacy programs to build COVID-19 confidence is unfounded, ridiculous and mind-boggling. There’s a lot of Wokeness koolaid out there. There is often a follow-up in data sorely missing. It’s easy to track the results: how many people get the vaccine after the county has been exorcised of its pernicious racism?
Lee, disagreement is welcome here, a place for civil discourse.
I disagree that my comment distracts from the overarching concerns this article raises. Dawn Whitney articulated it in a nutshell –
“When I read the grant application… All that I thought was: this is all about 100% vaxx rate for Jefferson County.”
So the safety and efficacy of the vax is quite germane to this story. The entire premise on which the grant was based does not hold water, not only because of the “unfounded, ridiculous and mind-boggling” misdirect that you note, but because spending tax dollars on pushing this shot in any way is arguably a waste of our tax dollars and even potentially damaging to our population.
Whether or not you are swayed by my articles regarding this subject is, of course, your choice. The global data regarding negative vaccine efficacy is incontrovertible, though as described in the UK article, attempts are being made to bury and deny it.
My greatest hope is that we can agree to disagree without these differences of opinion irreparably dividing our community. As you bore witness to on August 15th in your eloquent article we published on the mob mentality displayed at Pope Marine Park, the powers-that-be are bent on fomenting a complete breakdown of society, now being witnessed at breakneck speed. The Covid vax narrative pushed that agenda over the precipice, producing a mass delusional psychosis (see Mattias Desmet) this community continues to reel from.
The headline about Denmark “banning” the vaccine is very misleading.
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-denmark/fact-check-headline-that-claims-denmark-has-banned-covid-19-vaccines-for-children-is-misleading-idUSL1N2ZS0J8
I would appreciate with all future (and maybe this one too) articles, that we have as an attachment or footnote, a list of the names (maybe the addresses-locations[oooh, is that bad??] ) of the principals of the grant-applying individuals leading these suddenly appearing “organizations”.
God !, am I suddenly having too many parenthetical, quotation marks and brackets within parentheses ?? That’s suspicious in and of itself !
Am I eligible to be cancelled Too ?
These poor overworked volunteers do not need more to do. If you want this information attached you are more than welcome to look it up and leave it in a comment.
“Meanwhile back at the ranch…”
https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/creative-alliance-historic/
This doesn’t even make any sense: in the hopes of these nonprofits raising $30 million for the deferred maintenance that has been long overdue, they receive 25 years free rent as well as being able to to move into already refurbished as well as larger square footage facilities???
That comment made me literally laugh out loud, Stephen. I bet we’ll see a huge spike in vaccines once we’ve dealt with that problem. Sheesh.
One thing that makes me wonder is I haven’t been or will not be vacinated. I’ve tested negative any time I’ve been at the hospital and it’s been a lot of times. The last time I was there I came up with a test of having someone who was positive for COVID. How they came up with that, I don’t know. At on time I think I did have it try to get into my body for three tries in four weeks.. The first week I had a small rize in Temp, followed by chills. It lasted about two hours and went away. The same time the second week it happened again but only lasted about an hour. The third week nothing. The fourth week it was happening again at the same time and lasted about thirty minutes. I didn’t wear a mask except when in a store that had a sign saying you had to; or would you please wear one on entering. Also, I’m 79 years old and it should have killed me according to Dr. Bury . It’s interesting that the peoople who were checking businesses for masks didn’t wear a mask. One owner of a resturant who didn’t require wearing a mask or “social distancingd” had two of the “Mask Police” show up at his business. They were there to check to see who was wearing a card. He told them it was fine and could he see their cards and they said they didn’t have one. He told them he couldn’t let them in. They left and never showed up again. Hmmmm, interesting! Now, I have to ask myself whats next. Are they going to have road blocks to check for shots before you can enter PT?
Is there any way to find out how many County volunteers/employees are being forced to endure these “anti-racism courses” and how much money has been spent across the board on the courses?
A family member reports that as an employee of a county entity, he and his co-workers are required to attend meetings based on these anti-racism courses, regularly. When questioned regarding his ability to excuse himself from the requirement, he said he didn’t know because he preferred to just go along to get along and keep his head down, because he needs to keep his job.
I get the feeling from talking to him that he feels under constant surveillance as an employee of the county, with administrative personnel constantly keeping track of everyone’s thoughts, beliefs, and recreational activities through relentless meetings where personal information is gleaned during so-called “team-building” games/exercises.
It’s no wonder why so little work actually gets done at city and county levels, because it seems like they’ve got all of their employees gummed up with forced propaganda consumption and discussion; no one can just do their jobs and go home, anymore. People in positions of power in this city and county are going over citizens with fine tooth combs, to figure out who isn’t drinking the Kool-Aid.
This is getting quite terrifying. Almost everyone I know who doesn’t work for an openly (or clandestinely) conservative company, lives in fear of losing their job.
It’s such a racist liberal trope that Hispanic people in this county don’t speak English. Of course they speak English. They are the housekeepers and construction/landscaping workers for all of these silver-spoon dilettantes with their houses up on the hill. Some of the Latino families also own businesses here. Why are these county goons trying to make out like we have a large population of Spanish-speaking people here who don’t speak any English? That is just patently untrue; most are either deftly bi-lingual already, or are working hard in their off-hours to perfect the basic English they already know. Most of our Spanish-speaking residents speak better English than the Hostile Heffalumps on the City Council.
True. And frankly, if there is genuine concern about making sure LEP individuals receive equal access to information, have it translated. And write it well to begin with (sorely lacking).
I met a person today that was just out of the local hospital with liver problems. He was not doing well at all but forced himself to go out before heading home by land and having his boat shipped home. He had missed Wooden Boat Festival due to his illness. He shared with me his downward spiral after vaccination and boosters. His last booster left him with a condition in his hands immediately after and then the liver problems. His sense of cause and effect is set by his personal experience.
His hand issues sounded a lot like what Eric Clapton went through.
Each will arrive at their own sense of reality here.
I saw the term all-cause mortality rates mentioned here so I googled all-cause mortality rates and found a lot of information from many sources and from many countries.
This link below is just one. Seems race and language are not a factor for those choosing not to be vaccinated here and elsewhere. Seems grifters are not in short supply. Anywhere.
Seems misinformation is subjective. Seems Paul Simon was correct….”still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”. Each will hear what they want to.
https://www.biologicalmedicineinstitute.com/post/perspective-of-the-increase-of-all-cause-mortality-and-sudden-adult-death-syndrome
Poking around on the internet I found that she (Samantha Christine Krehel) is shown to have graduated in 2011 from West Point. She is also shown to be a member of their Volley ball team. So, apparently not BS.
Apparently they either don’t teach lessons in professionalism at West Point anymore, or this person just doesn’t care about those lessons.
That has to be the single most inappropriate and unprofessional company biography I have ever read. Anyone paying money to such a company for consulting fees is wrongheaded and delusional.
I checked into this guy Sam Kreher and his claim to be a graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point.
Baloney. His only affiliation with West Point is an Army West Point youth volleyball camp under the name Samantha.
Ask him to quote his 3 General Orders!
Rosemary – thank you and everyone else who contributed to digging up the information on this issue. Would someone be willing to formulate a question that could be posed at the debate between Brotherton and Kelbon on October 11th? I’m not trying to pass the buck here, but those who have the information on hand would be in the best position to craft the question appropriately.
Let us please… Set aside political party affiliation, and elect people who will be competent at managing the public’s trust. Thus far, we seem to keep electing with this not in mind.
Ana, thank you for your thoughtful response. Respectful disagreement is vital to getting out of the dead-end polarization we find ourselves in. The complete lack of nuanced debate is both exhausting and frankly intellectually uninteresting.
If we approach any complicated subject with a hypothesis, we will invariably succumb to confirmation bias. We don’t need to even try hard — machine learning has made sure that we will find exactly what we are looking for. I tried to look at each of the links you sent (a couple didn’t work for me). When I read the underlying white paper from article two, I found it in itself to be credible, but the headline to be completely misleading and self-serving.
Vaccine efficacy is an extremely complicated topic of epidemilogical inquiry. It is reductionist to suggest a good vs bad scenario. Similarly misleading to suggest there is irrefutable evidence about negative vaccine efficacy (a quick search pulled up a number of complex studies that factor in many variables such as contact homogenity that lead to different conclusions). In conducting studies, it is very possible to use data selectively, especially if one starts out with an agenda.
Similarly, suggesting that unvaccinated people should receive monetary compensation–is that helpful? Or does it just further fuel the rancor between people? Early on in the vaccine war I heard many express the sentiment that the unvaccinated should be simply turned away from overcrowded hospitals. It’s tempting to go down that path of self-righteousness, but in the end, what good does it do anyone?
I got my first vaccine series as soon as I could, and the first booster last October. When the second booster rolled around, I re-evaluated the risks and benefits and chose not to get it. I was successfully COVID-free until five days ago. It’s worse than a cold, but I’m not in the hospital and never feared I would be. I cannot know how the vaccines impacted the severity of my illness; I cannot live the counterfactual. I made decisions at each juncture based on information from people and sources I trusted, not because I was a victim of groupthink or mass hysteria. That kind of pigeon-holing is as wrong and ineffective as saying all anti-vaxxers are ignorant victims of systemic racism.
I think we can do more than agree to disagree. We can challenge ourselves to remain open to the possibility that we may be biased, dispel with judgment and try to hear each other even when we find the message very unpalatable.
Lee, your response likewise is thoughtful and much appreciated.
To start with, I can see how my suggestion that the 4700 unvaxxed in Jeffco should have just received a portion of the $60K the county has spent on trying to overcome “vaccine hesitancy” (a euphemistic understatement) could be taken as furthering the polarization. It was intended partly as humor (obviously fell flat there) and partly to say the county is wasting resources that individual citizens could make real use of. It was not meant to be self-righteous, which I totally agree does not serve.
I am reluctant to get into more nuanced discussion here about vax efficacy because that does start going off the rails in terms of our comment guidelines regarding staying on-topic. I appreciate your telling of your own choices and you can find my experience with the virus in an earlier article. It is interesting that you got Covid after your booster which is exactly what the negative efficacy data warns of. Glad to hear you chose to avoid further “boosts” which data shows incrementally amplifies immune system damage with each successive shot. Perhaps there will be a future article where this conversation is more relevant and we can have more nuanced discussion.
The only other piece of this I’ll mention once again is the dramatic rise in all-cause mortality. Harvey linked an excellent article about that after doing some research following my earlier comment.
Finally, your last paragraph is a gem. Thank you for that.
Thank you, Ana. This is the kind of discourse that I find interesting and meaningful. Also agree that further discussion about the vaccine itself is too off topic for this article and in an effort to address the issue at hand, we should table it (or move it elsewhere because I do think it’s fascinating in itself).
I am a 76 year old that has not and will not submit my body to the MRNA shot for Covid19. Dr. Naomi Wolfe’s research on the matter shows significant health risks for women who are pregnant due to the clotting effects of the shot. Booster shots only exacerbate the issue. Also, boys and young men, especially soccer players, have been found to have serious to deadly side effects from the vaccines.
The desperate need of these folks to both racialize every aspect of life and to obtain compliance to their ideologies (Kate Dean’s reporting in to a county commissioner’s meeting while on honeymoon in Portugal with breathless adoration for the highly-vaccinated Portuguese and her tsk-tsk wish that we’d be more “compliant” here still clangs in my ears) would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous and destructive.
This is a bunch of white people telling people of color that they – the whites – know what’s best. Put another way, this anti-racist training is at its heart, as racist as it gets. The condescension and infantilizing of people of color by white saviors boggles the mind. And the Woke Industrial Complex- those DEI trainers- are making a killing off of white folks’ self-flagellating, pious clinging to their new religion. Refusing the jab isn’t seen as an individual’s choice, based on available research & data (or lack thereof and deciding it’s better to wait until you know more than to subject yourself to an untested therapy): if you’re white and you refuse, you’re a conspiracy theorist, a Trumper, a prepper, a selfish idiot. If you’re a person of color and you say no, you just don’t know any better. But wait! Here are some helpful white people who’ve been trained as anti-racists, ready to evangelize and save your soul. Roll up your sleeve, black brother, whitey’s gonna save you with the jab! Amen and Hallelujah!
It takes a mental virus to think you have the right to inoculate anyone through coercive mandates and lies, and frame it as anti-racism.
AJ this is one of the most beautiful and well spoken comments I have read anywhere across the Internet about these issues. Thank you so much for taking the time to write it.
Oh, Kendall- thank you. Here I was, thinking I’d indulged in another early morning, coffee-fueled rant. 🙂 I appreciate you reading and commenting.
Reading between the lines, I believe this grant application was an effort by the county to get the money from outside of the Jefferson County budget to fulfill a state requirement that Washington heath professionals be trained about “health inequities or racism in the health care system” as detailed in RCW 453.70.613, given the contents of the application. The state and the feds sometimes require grantees to do certain things to get the money being offered. Under such circumstances, there is no point in fighting the system. The wisest thing to do is to gain the money to pay for the requirement and then include the required training within a wider useful training that is paid out of the grant.
What, specifically, was it about the consulting firm that bothers you?
“… honey trapped into it by drag queens?” A comment redolent of stereotype and misinformation. Thought this website had civility guidelines.
Ms. Wolpin,
Why, in your opinion, are the powers-that-be “bent on fomenting a complete breakdown of society?” Who, specifically, are these “powers-that-be?”