This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated September 3, 2021
During this pandemic, parents’ number one responsibility has been at the forefront of their minds: keep our kids safe. With COVID-19, the risks to our children’s wellbeing have never been greater in terms of how omnipresent they are throughout every aspect of normal, daily life.
We have seen many elected officials from other states where resistance to COVID-19 mitigation methods is prevalent, routinely downplay risks to and ignore guidelines meant to help keep us safe. However, there are leaders in our own communities here in New York City that have been taking that stance, appealing to the most extreme elements of the far-right.
While many families are fighting for things like a remote option for students or measures to reduce the spread of the virus in public indoor areas, some politicians are not just resisting those efforts but calling for there to be absolutely no mask requirements inside school buildings and attacking vaccination requirements of any kind.
These actions jeopardize public health and, ultimately, put lives at risk, simply to endear themselves to the most radical blocs of their base. We need our leaders to fight for what is best for their constituents, not for a few to have the right to act in ways in public that cause harm to many. We need our elected officials to do everything in their power to help us get past the pandemic, not prolong it, both through substantive actions, as well as through their rhetoric.
“It may just be words, but when sitting members of Congress encourage people, many of whom are established to be violent, to continue breaking laws, it carries a great deal of weight and gives them a greater sense of justification to fight on, no matter what stands in their way.”
Staten Island is very closely connected to Southern Brooklyn, both physically by the Verrazzano Bridge and in terms of representation, with New York’s eleventh congressional district covering Staten Island, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, and parts of Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, and Gravesend. When compared to the areas just across the bridge in Brooklyn, Staten Island has had COVId-19 positivity rates more than twice as high and the vaccination rates significantly lower among the youngest age groups that have accounted for most community spread of the virus the past few months.
The current member of Congress representing New York’s eleventh has herself joined, or sent representation to, press conferences and demonstrations against masks in schools and in opposition to vaccination requirements. Nobody wants to tell people they need to wear a mask or restrict what people who do not have some protection against the virus by way of the vaccine can do indoors, but these are necessary mitigation efforts to help us all get back to a life with less restrictions sooner.
Last December, Congresswoman Malliotakis addressed a raucous crowd gathered in front of Mac’s Public House in Staten Island, after the owner had made a show of serving indoor diners in violation of public health restrictions. The Proud Boys, who also took a leading role during the January 6 Capitol insurrection a few weeks later, were part of that crowd. At least one local man at Mac’s that December night, took part in storming the Capitol. A few nights after Malliotakis spoke to the protesters, offering her full support for the owner of Mac’s, he ran his car into a New York City Sherriff’s Deputy, breaking his leg.
It may just be words, but when sitting members of Congress encourage people, many of whom are established to be violent, to continue breaking laws, it carries a great deal of weight and gives them a greater sense of justification to fight on, no matter what stands in their way. Make no mistake, this fight is not the same as peacefully calling for all Americans to be treated equally, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. Choosing not to be vaccinated or to resist covering your mouth and nose in public is a choice, while the others are decided the moment someone is born.
On August 16, Malliotakis marched with protesters who were opposing vaccination requirements for health care workers at a Staten Island hospital. One of the leaders of the rally, a radiology technician named John Matland, is close friends with Danny Presti of Mac’s. The circle of people behind these extreme, anti-health efforts are a small, vocal minority. Catering to them in order to incite more outrage is unbecoming of our leaders.
