California From the Inside

How I knew they were lying

I was thinking about this weeks ago on a morning when I was sitting in a traffic jam. Three years ago, the plandemic began and everyone was told to stay home. Period. I ignored the “order” and headed to a regular destination, something I did throughout the restrictions that existed in California, especially here in Los Angeles. Back then, it was so nice to drive on the freeways with barely any traffic and get to the place I needed to get to without worrying about being there on time. By the way, I was never stopped by law enforcement. 

That first day when I went I out and headed east on I-10, I knew. 

I-10 West was pretty much at a dead stop. Taking brief glances over the median, I could see that the traffic consisted mostly of work trucks. Construction workers, gardeners, handymen, plumbers, pool service. Free agents and companies. You name the type of worker, and they were chilling at 0 MPH on the I-10 at 6:30 AM on February 3 March 19, 2020. Bumper to bumper. 

I-10 West leads to the 405, and obviously to all points west of that like Santa Monica, Venice Beach, and Beverly Hills. And the 405 North leads to cities where people of means live: entertainment professionals, actors, producers and the like - in other words, rich people. So, all these fine, working gentlemen were heading out to service the houses of these people - to cut their grass, to service their swimming pools, to fix any construction and plumbing issues, and so on. You have to remember how afraid everyone was back then - that some kind of new, virulent disease was destined to kill us all. But the rich did not believe it, and neither did I.  

(The work men were mostly Hispanic, as were the people who still worked in the stores. I have half-joked that Hispanic people kept the rest of us alive back then.) 

Oh, sure I wore a mask when I had to go to the store - you couldn't be let in if you didn't. But here's something I did do on my 3 mile morning walk around the neighborhood: I think I wore a face covering the first time I went out after the plandemic and it was so hard to breathe that I said “Fuck it. I'm not wearing it!” There were many other people out jogging, biking and walking because all the gyms were closed. None of these people wore masks either. And as we know, almost none of the homeless wore masks and that was the next reason that I knew. Any observer expected there to be a rampant death toll among them. But they have been mostly fine, such as they are. 

My church had been streaming live and recorded sermons decades earlier using older forms of technology. So, we kept doing that up until May 2020 when Governor Newsom began allowing churches and the like to conduct services in person. Most of our congregation came back. Masks were optional and almost no one wore one. Newsom kept everything open for only three weeks, however. At that point, there was an alleged new breakout, so he ordered everything closed again. But my pastor ignored him and kept conducting in-person services. We entered from the back egress like a bunch of meth heads. 

Two famous churches in California received a lot of media attention for doing the same thing, as if no other houses of worship dared to defy the “order.” But I know for a fact that many churches conducted regular in-person services, minus the fanfare. I did also notice that mosques were open. 

I’ve mentioned online before that my church stayed open and an interesting thing about that is that some observers presumed that it was being left alone because it was a “black” church. This presumption reflects how insidiously our thinking has been tainted by what we see and read online. And, for the record, my church’s racial composition mirrors that of our country. Funny, that.  

Now, since the new mask “mandate” of 2023, I see a lot more people wearing them than was so in the last 18 months or so, but I can’t remember the last time I put on one and no one has accosted me about it. Hey, it might be Black Woman Privilege, but I don’t think so. Many of all colors have figured out that we’ve been conned. 

But I do carry this one around, just in case.