When I was eight years old, my Cub Scout pack announced its big event of the year, The Pinewood Derby. The Derby was a wooden toy car race in which seven-inch long, gravity-powered cars rolled down a long wooden ramp with a lane for each of the eight cars in a given heat. A local store sold official DIY Pinewood Derby kits, which included only a block of wood, four hard plastic wheels and four nails to serve as axles.
I will never get over what adults, especially parents, have allowed themselves to do to children. Some are continuing the abuse to this day and apparently have no plans to change anything. And they want to tell people like me that we're the "selfish" ones because we didn't want to go along with the make-believe rituals.
I harmed zero children during the scamdemic. I am continuing to harm zero children. I wouldn't dream of asking a child to sacrifice one moment of their young lives, development and experiences to avoid any illness even if it weren't a hoax.
When I see or hear of people that abuse children in this manner, I just think "How could you? What's wrong with you?" And I have to wonder what people that like are ultimately capable of given their treatment of children.
I am curious if you went back and tried the next year at Pinewood Derby, now that you had a better idea of what was required to win. What was the impact on you?
This applies to this coronamania.... will the naive people realize they were not prepared for this, and made decisions at the time which didn't turn out so well later on?
Unfortunately, unlike the Pinewood Derby, they don't get a fresh chance to try again next year. So much damage has been done. But undoubtedly many survivors of this scamdemic are now wise to what's required in order to make it to the finish line, even if they won't.
Beautifully said, Mark. So bittersweet. I tried to tell my senior friends the damage happening to working people and children but since none of us was losing much--healthy and well off with pensions and savings etc --it made no impact on them. The whole world was sacrificing for US they were told. Ok with them. I could not understand it as my daughter and family were going through hell. The remuneration from the government helped little when mortgages had to be paid every month. My SIL scrambled trying to find some work to fill in the large gap as his job in the sports industry shut down. This changed my opinion of my friends. I doubt they have learned anything. They still mask at times.
As always so pertinent to the situation we all find ourselves in right now. My boys did the pinewood derby as well and I was the one who helped them build their cars (I'm the handy one in the family...my husband is all thumbs when it comes to things like this!). We even bought kits for my girls since they were interested as well. They never did win but they had fun trying!
So glad my boys got to participate in all of that when they were young b/c they never would've if they were alive during this time...or, who knows, maybe I would've succumbed to the covid mania if I lived in the States and had it pushed at me 24/7. I'll never know but it does bring to mind something my mom said to me before we moved. She was a very religious person who's life reflected the depths of her faith. She said to me that she thought the reason we were being moved across the ocean and away from all we knew and loved was to save us from something huge that would affect the United States in the future...I mentioned this to my husband at the time and he just laughed and said it seems very heartless that we would be saved and not the rest of my family or our neighbors or friends. I must admit that I was kind of thinking the same thing until I remembered what she had said just recently and thought that maybe this was what we were being saved from? I don't know and won't know till I reach those pearly gates myself but hope that she's looking down on us and praying that we remain strong and safe during these screwed up times...
You had a worthy goal, to win the derby, but you were inexperienced and therefore unprepared. You made the best car you could under the circumstances.
The past several years has been one long derby in which the entire world was forced into a broken down, un-drivable, dangerous death trap for a race that never needed to be run.
The “if it saves even one life” rhetoric was a brilliant invention because it created a false dichotomy between money and lives. Even now, some people still don’t understand that we need a robust economy to produce vital things like food, medicine, and housing. It was never money vs. lives. It was a few highly publicized lives vs. many, many invisible ones.
I used to collect those cars when I saw them at yard sales. The wonky, weird ones were my favorites as the hands of the parents were obviously not on them. They were so charming and hopeful looking.
Globally, there were & are plenty of useful idiots w/in governments & among the masses but anyone medically trained KNEW they could never contain a respiratory virus; they KNEW there were safe, cheap, effective measures (including Iver & Hydroxy, sure, but also over-the-counter vitamins, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, losing weight!) to combat it in early stages but demonized & suppressed them; they KNEW natural immunity was superior & that the “virus” had been circulating since mid-2019 & thus, herd immunity had already been achieved by March 2020; Faux-Xi admitted to “honorable” lies on multiple occasions on various issues & constantly moving the goalposts; Birx admitted in her book that at the very moment they convinced Trump to shut down for 2 weeks, they were already plotting to keep extending that; they KNEW the “vaccines” were not vaccines at all, that they would not stop transmission & that they had not been properly trialed; they KNEW masks don’t work; they KNEW you don’t quarantine entire populations. What was done to us had nothing to do w/ “saving just 1 life”.
And I might propose that they plotted & planned & coordinated quite well, because the world is in free fall on every front, as planned.
The Coronamaniacs fell under the spell of the propaganda campaign and many are still in a trance. We have a couple friends who ran out and got the new booster as soon as it came out. An extended family member of mine, an Ivy League graduate and valedictorian, jabbed his 2 year old son! There's just no waking some of these people up. And they can't seem to think ahead. Are they planning twice yearly injections for the rest of their lives?! Have they thought how that might affect their bodies? I just don't get how naive (like 8 year olds) these grown adults can be.
Pinewood Derby is another rigged piece of Americana: The kids rarely work on the cars, with parents paying auto mechanics, body shops and engineers to refine the block of wood so that their (grand)child can make it to pinewood "Worlds" in New York City. The (adult) child gets to bring home a trophy for their hundreds of dollars of investment along with bragging rights about how they whooped the other 8-year olds.
In our local pack the decent families who did this, in shame, refused to even go to the leagues: They realized that it was a cheat. Even more interestingly, some of the families that came to this realization: That the game was rigged, also kept themselves unjabbed even to the point of losing employment rather than take the experimental mRNA Gene Therapy. So maybe there is redemption in pinewood derby, or scouting.
Pre-lockdown, there were many scouting units. On the tail end most of them shut their doors and the one that I have led for years is struggling to recover scouts, meeting space and volunteer adults. The lockdowns broke scouting too. If it were just Pinewood I'd have few regrets, but to lose out on all of the other skills experience, leadership, outdoorsmanship, survival, family and friend memories plus campfires is just one more unkind cut for the US and Canada.
The scouting presidents of the NorthEast US Councils will be meeting in person for the first time in years to discuss the cratering situtation of scouting and try to rebuild. The local president spoke about how he's driving for more inclusion. When I suggested a local hispanic who was an Eagle Scout, just won a county political office, had a young scout and loved the scouting program, it was as if I hadn't spoken. Hetero hispanic male didn't seem diverse enough.
Another hard hit, Mark - though that pinewood box also included the numbers 0-9. Scout on
Future consequences. It's hard for a lot of people to see that A leads to B leads to C, when they are starting at X and jumping to L and then to Z. Maybe the more logical you are the more you can immediately see future consequences to actions. Or maybe it just takes experience.
I saw the consequences of the covid me-too freakout immediately when Trump banned air travel from Europe. First, it was stupid, since the virus was already in the US. Second, since I worked in logistics I knew this would start a supply-chain nightmare. Third, this was the a knee-jerk reaction (starting at X and jumping to L) for no reason other than an appearance of "doing something."
Like you said - all of the above can only lead to the wheels coming off.
I was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout for many many years. The Boy Scouts it was a place where young men could socialize with one another. I know it was a place where many of us and I’ve learned to have a genuine appreciation for other boys and young men as individuals with their own unique talents and abilities and views. In the Boy Scouts I learned that there are always going to be people that are better than you at certain things. I learned that everybody has something to contribute. All of us experience failure and rejection in our life and this is a very important lesson to learn early on
Brilliant article! I just love reading your stories Mark…such wisdom!
Our 6th (and youngest child) graduated high school in the dreaded 2020 covid-craziness. We weren’t certain there would even be a ceremony as they kept changing the plans. In the end, they had a “modified” graduation ceremony outside with the class divided into two groups by last name (one in the morning, the other in the afternoon). It was similar to other graduations our kids had in the past, but the students (they were only allowed 4 tickets each) and their parents/guests were masked (even outside). There were speeches and music, but there was definitely something missing. Their “shine” seemed to be missing. I think the students were all suffering a type of grief…not because of the “modified” ceremony, but by looking back on that day in March (the 12th to be exact) when they left school for a couple weeks to “flatten the curve” (which also included their spring break) they didn’t realize that they would never return to their high school again. Lockers and desks were left untouched only to have their contents retrieved a few days before graduation. I think that “thing” I sensed that graduation day, was a grief and sorrow of not doing the “Carpe Diem” and leaving so many things (friendships, projects, hopes, and dreams) unfinished or in process.
Our school district (with only 2 high schools) actually had it a lot better than some of the city schools who had “drive-thru” graduations. I’m sure it is a scar that will live with most of the kids who graduated that fateful year. I feel angered and disappointed for these kids, but they will have some crazy stories to tell their grandkids one day!
I will never get over what adults, especially parents, have allowed themselves to do to children. Some are continuing the abuse to this day and apparently have no plans to change anything. And they want to tell people like me that we're the "selfish" ones because we didn't want to go along with the make-believe rituals.
I harmed zero children during the scamdemic. I am continuing to harm zero children. I wouldn't dream of asking a child to sacrifice one moment of their young lives, development and experiences to avoid any illness even if it weren't a hoax.
When I see or hear of people that abuse children in this manner, I just think "How could you? What's wrong with you?" And I have to wonder what people that like are ultimately capable of given their treatment of children.
I am curious if you went back and tried the next year at Pinewood Derby, now that you had a better idea of what was required to win. What was the impact on you?
This applies to this coronamania.... will the naive people realize they were not prepared for this, and made decisions at the time which didn't turn out so well later on?
Unfortunately, unlike the Pinewood Derby, they don't get a fresh chance to try again next year. So much damage has been done. But undoubtedly many survivors of this scamdemic are now wise to what's required in order to make it to the finish line, even if they won't.
Beautifully said, Mark. So bittersweet. I tried to tell my senior friends the damage happening to working people and children but since none of us was losing much--healthy and well off with pensions and savings etc --it made no impact on them. The whole world was sacrificing for US they were told. Ok with them. I could not understand it as my daughter and family were going through hell. The remuneration from the government helped little when mortgages had to be paid every month. My SIL scrambled trying to find some work to fill in the large gap as his job in the sports industry shut down. This changed my opinion of my friends. I doubt they have learned anything. They still mask at times.
As always so pertinent to the situation we all find ourselves in right now. My boys did the pinewood derby as well and I was the one who helped them build their cars (I'm the handy one in the family...my husband is all thumbs when it comes to things like this!). We even bought kits for my girls since they were interested as well. They never did win but they had fun trying!
So glad my boys got to participate in all of that when they were young b/c they never would've if they were alive during this time...or, who knows, maybe I would've succumbed to the covid mania if I lived in the States and had it pushed at me 24/7. I'll never know but it does bring to mind something my mom said to me before we moved. She was a very religious person who's life reflected the depths of her faith. She said to me that she thought the reason we were being moved across the ocean and away from all we knew and loved was to save us from something huge that would affect the United States in the future...I mentioned this to my husband at the time and he just laughed and said it seems very heartless that we would be saved and not the rest of my family or our neighbors or friends. I must admit that I was kind of thinking the same thing until I remembered what she had said just recently and thought that maybe this was what we were being saved from? I don't know and won't know till I reach those pearly gates myself but hope that she's looking down on us and praying that we remain strong and safe during these screwed up times...
Good story. Good moral. Sadly, Over Here, complacency and ignorance were all that came out of a society only interested in answers to three questions:
* What's for dinner?
* What's the TV going to tell us what to do now?
* How much has my house gone up in value?
Beautifully written, yet heartbreaking story Mark. Thank you.
You had a worthy goal, to win the derby, but you were inexperienced and therefore unprepared. You made the best car you could under the circumstances.
The past several years has been one long derby in which the entire world was forced into a broken down, un-drivable, dangerous death trap for a race that never needed to be run.
The “if it saves even one life” rhetoric was a brilliant invention because it created a false dichotomy between money and lives. Even now, some people still don’t understand that we need a robust economy to produce vital things like food, medicine, and housing. It was never money vs. lives. It was a few highly publicized lives vs. many, many invisible ones.
I used to collect those cars when I saw them at yard sales. The wonky, weird ones were my favorites as the hands of the parents were obviously not on them. They were so charming and hopeful looking.
Globally, there were & are plenty of useful idiots w/in governments & among the masses but anyone medically trained KNEW they could never contain a respiratory virus; they KNEW there were safe, cheap, effective measures (including Iver & Hydroxy, sure, but also over-the-counter vitamins, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, losing weight!) to combat it in early stages but demonized & suppressed them; they KNEW natural immunity was superior & that the “virus” had been circulating since mid-2019 & thus, herd immunity had already been achieved by March 2020; Faux-Xi admitted to “honorable” lies on multiple occasions on various issues & constantly moving the goalposts; Birx admitted in her book that at the very moment they convinced Trump to shut down for 2 weeks, they were already plotting to keep extending that; they KNEW the “vaccines” were not vaccines at all, that they would not stop transmission & that they had not been properly trialed; they KNEW masks don’t work; they KNEW you don’t quarantine entire populations. What was done to us had nothing to do w/ “saving just 1 life”.
And I might propose that they plotted & planned & coordinated quite well, because the world is in free fall on every front, as planned.
Another wonderful article Mark! Thank you 🙏
The Coronamaniacs fell under the spell of the propaganda campaign and many are still in a trance. We have a couple friends who ran out and got the new booster as soon as it came out. An extended family member of mine, an Ivy League graduate and valedictorian, jabbed his 2 year old son! There's just no waking some of these people up. And they can't seem to think ahead. Are they planning twice yearly injections for the rest of their lives?! Have they thought how that might affect their bodies? I just don't get how naive (like 8 year olds) these grown adults can be.
Pinewood Derby is another rigged piece of Americana: The kids rarely work on the cars, with parents paying auto mechanics, body shops and engineers to refine the block of wood so that their (grand)child can make it to pinewood "Worlds" in New York City. The (adult) child gets to bring home a trophy for their hundreds of dollars of investment along with bragging rights about how they whooped the other 8-year olds.
In our local pack the decent families who did this, in shame, refused to even go to the leagues: They realized that it was a cheat. Even more interestingly, some of the families that came to this realization: That the game was rigged, also kept themselves unjabbed even to the point of losing employment rather than take the experimental mRNA Gene Therapy. So maybe there is redemption in pinewood derby, or scouting.
Pre-lockdown, there were many scouting units. On the tail end most of them shut their doors and the one that I have led for years is struggling to recover scouts, meeting space and volunteer adults. The lockdowns broke scouting too. If it were just Pinewood I'd have few regrets, but to lose out on all of the other skills experience, leadership, outdoorsmanship, survival, family and friend memories plus campfires is just one more unkind cut for the US and Canada.
The scouting presidents of the NorthEast US Councils will be meeting in person for the first time in years to discuss the cratering situtation of scouting and try to rebuild. The local president spoke about how he's driving for more inclusion. When I suggested a local hispanic who was an Eagle Scout, just won a county political office, had a young scout and loved the scouting program, it was as if I hadn't spoken. Hetero hispanic male didn't seem diverse enough.
Another hard hit, Mark - though that pinewood box also included the numbers 0-9. Scout on
Future consequences. It's hard for a lot of people to see that A leads to B leads to C, when they are starting at X and jumping to L and then to Z. Maybe the more logical you are the more you can immediately see future consequences to actions. Or maybe it just takes experience.
I saw the consequences of the covid me-too freakout immediately when Trump banned air travel from Europe. First, it was stupid, since the virus was already in the US. Second, since I worked in logistics I knew this would start a supply-chain nightmare. Third, this was the a knee-jerk reaction (starting at X and jumping to L) for no reason other than an appearance of "doing something."
Like you said - all of the above can only lead to the wheels coming off.
I was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout for many many years. The Boy Scouts it was a place where young men could socialize with one another. I know it was a place where many of us and I’ve learned to have a genuine appreciation for other boys and young men as individuals with their own unique talents and abilities and views. In the Boy Scouts I learned that there are always going to be people that are better than you at certain things. I learned that everybody has something to contribute. All of us experience failure and rejection in our life and this is a very important lesson to learn early on
Brilliant article! I just love reading your stories Mark…such wisdom!
Our 6th (and youngest child) graduated high school in the dreaded 2020 covid-craziness. We weren’t certain there would even be a ceremony as they kept changing the plans. In the end, they had a “modified” graduation ceremony outside with the class divided into two groups by last name (one in the morning, the other in the afternoon). It was similar to other graduations our kids had in the past, but the students (they were only allowed 4 tickets each) and their parents/guests were masked (even outside). There were speeches and music, but there was definitely something missing. Their “shine” seemed to be missing. I think the students were all suffering a type of grief…not because of the “modified” ceremony, but by looking back on that day in March (the 12th to be exact) when they left school for a couple weeks to “flatten the curve” (which also included their spring break) they didn’t realize that they would never return to their high school again. Lockers and desks were left untouched only to have their contents retrieved a few days before graduation. I think that “thing” I sensed that graduation day, was a grief and sorrow of not doing the “Carpe Diem” and leaving so many things (friendships, projects, hopes, and dreams) unfinished or in process.
Our school district (with only 2 high schools) actually had it a lot better than some of the city schools who had “drive-thru” graduations. I’m sure it is a scar that will live with most of the kids who graduated that fateful year. I feel angered and disappointed for these kids, but they will have some crazy stories to tell their grandkids one day!