On Saturday, Glenn Youngkin was inaugurated as governor of Virginia, while Winsome Sears was inaugurated as lieutenant governor. Upon officially taking office, Youngkin wasted no time righting the wrongs he was elected to fix. He signed nine executive orders and two executive directives on his first day.
“It’s Day One, and we are going to work just like we promised,” Governor Youngkin said in a press release.
One executive order banned the teaching of critical race theory, and the other lifted the mask mandate in public schools.
“The work is only beginning,” Youngkin said. “The important steps we are taking today begins the work of restoring excellence in education, making our communities safer, opening Virginia for business and reinvigorating job growth, and making government work for the people, and not the other way around.”
Also, the new attorney general of Virginia, Jason Miyares, quickly announced investigations into the Virginia Parole Board for letting out violent criminals early and Loudoun County Public Schools for covering up the sexual assault of a young girl on school property by a “gender fluid” student.
Meanwhile, my friend and New York Post columnist Karol Markowitz has been publicly documenting her exodus from New York City to the great red state of Florida and is making me jealous every day.
“Last week, my children went to school maskless for the first time since March 2020,” she wrote last week. “Was I worried about them getting COVID? No, because there’s a mountain of evidence that their cloth Batman masks do absolutely nothing.”
“New York schools have decided that children are little disease vectors and so keep them in their seats and apart from each other. No circle time for the kids for their own good. No movement in class at all, lest they spread the one and only virus we care about. No indoor play. Safety first, childhood last.”
I live in New York myself. Not New York City like she did, however. So, while things aren’t nearly as bad where I live, they’re still pretty bad. My son still has to wear a mask in school, which I hate, but it beats remote learning. Despite the occasional teacher shortage and positive COVID case among students, the school has remained open–not gone remote as we feared it might.
Nevertheless, Karol’s descriptions of her new life in Florida are in stark contrast to the insanity of New York state. Last month, New York Governor Kathy Hochul imposed a statewide mask mandate for public places. It was largely rebuffed by the counties put in charge of enforcement, but the majority of the public that I’ve observed nevertheless still don face masks that the CDC admits aren’t very effective.
I’ve lived in blue states my entire life. I was born and raised in Massachusetts, went to college in Connecticut, and now live in New York state. Let me assure you that a lifetime in blue states doesn’t make it easier to live under draconian COVID restrictions. When I see what’s happening in Virginia under new leadership, or red states like Florida and Texas, it’s hard not to envy the freedom they have.
Related: Millions of Americans Are Getting ‘Fresh Starts’ in Red States