Riverfront event will proceed with safety guidelines
The Modern Makers Market scheduled for May 22 and 23 at Seeger Riverfront Park in Beacon will be held but with stricter pandemic-related guidelines than the state requires, city officials said.
The event, which is being organized by Hops on the Hudson, will feature 100 artisans from New York state selling handmade wares. There will be two sessions per day, with a maximum of 500 people allowed in per session. Everyone will be required to wear masks.
All vendors and attendees must either show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test within 72 hours, City Administrator Chris White said, noting that the city is imposing stricter controls than it does on Beacon’s farmers’ and flea markets. All attendees must have tickets to enter.
“We’re not just opening up like spring break at Daytona Beach here,” White told the City Council during its April 26 workshop. “It’s a shot for some of these artisans who have been hammered through the pandemic.”
The Dutchess County health department signed off on the plan, he said.
It truly breaks my heart to see the good people of Cold Spring and Beacon still living in such fear of the virus, as though we were back in the dark days of March 2020, when little was known about it and we did not yet have the Trump vaccines. (Yes folks, much as you despise him, if it wasn’t for former President Trump, none of these amazing vaccines would be available today.) But I digress.
In recent times I have had occasion to walk on the Main streets of both places during the beautiful spring weather and it never ceases to amaze me to see that 99 percent of the people are fully masked up to their eyeballs even thought they are outdoors in the sunshine where there is little to no chance of catching COVID. I wonder how many of them have themselves been vaccinated and still insist on wearing one or even two masks to cover their faces and dehumanize themselves, because that is just what the masks do.
Getting back to this event, again I am saddened that apparently the only way the promoters could have the event was to enforce completely draconian rules on the attendees including the completely unconstitutional demands for vaccine “passports,” testing reports and mask wearing without exemptions.
I don’t know if anyone has told the rulers of Beacon, but this is still the Constitutional Republic of the US of A, not some oligarchy that is ruled by know-nothing bureaucrats. Neither the promoters nor the city enforcers have the right to make such demand that at the very least are in violation of the existing HIPAA laws and even the current “orders” of King Cuomo who rules us all (regardless of the Legislature which has turned over all their power to our Supreme Ruler).
It should also be noted that millions of New Yorkers, including many of those who would attend this event, have either been vaccinated or are immune to COVID. Even the obtuse CDC has recognized this fact and has officially relaxed some of their guidelines, as well, for what it’s worth.
If the current mentality of those who are running our local towns and villages is such that they will not recognize the inalienable civil rights and freedoms of the citizenry, then they can suffer the consequences as people wake up to how they are being abused by these absurd dictates.
On the other hand, maybe the locals will never wake up and will continue to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome indefinitely. Stranger things than that have happened.