It is time to end the current Directive Health Measure issued by the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Dept. simply because it is ineffective. The current data from all three health districts, Lancaster, Sarpy/Cass, and Douglas, indicate the number of cases per 100,000 population remain very similar, and also the percentage changes. Interestingly, it doesn’t matter whether cases are going up or down, the three health districts numbers move together. Of these three districts, only Lancaster County has a mask mandate. This current measure and the subsequent mask mandate are not verifiable solutions to our challenges with Covid. “Science” and compliance are clearly not enough to move the needle on what brings safety and a return to pre-pandemic normalcy. That IS the end game, right? A marvelous life filled with the freedoms (the individual freedoms) to congregate, socialize, enjoy commerce, find identity in work or purpose of life, and ultimately pursue happiness? A daily and healthy life that doesn't require someone to choose obedience or defiance of a non-enforceable mask mandate?

The Lincoln City Charter (2.22.030) and the Nebraska Constitution (71-1631 #10) clearly define the same obligation respectively of a County Health Dept., "to investigate the existence of contagious and infectious disease and adopt measures to arrest the progress of the disease." & "Investigate the existence of any contagious or infectious disease and adopt measures, with the approval of the Department of Health and Human Services, to arrest the progress of the same". It's abundantly clear that an investigation as to the whereabouts of the current contagious and infectious disease has yielded no answers other than...PEOPLE are the problem. If all residents stopped getting sick, we could return to normal, right? Yet, here ALL of Lancaster County stays, in a perpetual extended mask mandate wondering where and how residents continue getting sick. Is it Husker Game days? Going out to eat? Unsafe work environments? Sunday Church? Taco Tuesday? Weddings? Funerals? Grocery stores? Gas stations? Parks? Zoos? Lincoln hospitals and medical professionals are stretched to their limits because people keep getting sick. School systems, education staff and parents are stretched to their limits because people keep getting sick. Businesses and livelihoods have been crushed because PEOPLE keep getting sick.

All Lancaster County residents know that the current mandate WILL be extended until after the holidays, then after cold and flu season, after Valentine's Day, after St. Patrick's Day, after Easter, after Mother's Day and probably until schools out for Summer. What "arrestable" stat does it take to go from yellow to red or green? What measurement is it to end the mask mandates FOREVER? What metric worked in 2020 to STOP the curve, not slow it? The reality is...there is no stat, nor measurement, nor metric. The mask mandate will end when there is no longer an unconstitutional, unilateral, authoritarian control over 330,000+ residents, children, business, and schools...our future. The mask mandate will end when tyranny is stood up to and the citizens of Lincoln and Lancaster County have had enough. 15 out of the last 19 months of being in a mask mandate IS tyranny. Take extreme ownership of your freedom, Lincoln. Let's go!