Attorney Shawn McBride headlined the March, 2022 kickoff event of Not On Our Watch. He and pilot Tom Oltorik joined our August meeting to share the legislative strategy that became the focus of NOOW’s current planning. When talk show host Karen Schoen heard their story, she wanted to make it widely known. She interviewed the pair on The Prism of America’s Education in early November. She will be doing a follow-up interview with NOOW’s President Stu Rosenbaum and Medical Research Director Alf Garbutt.

Click the image. The interview starts at 4:29.

Shawn explains that the state health officer—an appointed official—can declare a public health emergency under Florida Statute 381. He can then force anyone to be examined, tested, treated, isolated, and quarantined. He can deputize the police to enforce his mandates. There is no judicial recourse.

Statute 381 was invoked in 2020-21, when Scott Rivkees was the state’s surgeon general and public health officer. “As an airline pilot, Tom saw the people in the airports, and I saw the forms as a lawyer. They were actually getting people off planes and having them sign forms about where they were going, where they were going to quarantine and isolate, how long they were going to stay in Florida.

“At the bottom it said, ‘The State of Florida has the authority to force you to be examined, tested, treated, isolated, quarantined.’ They were making people fill out and sign this form before they would let them leave.”

Governor DeSantis just got re-elected. He had already replaced Rivkees with a better friend of freedom, Dr. Joseph Ladapo. We’re breathing easier now. But there is always a “next pandemic” on the drawing board. American citizens need to step up and reclaim our medical freedom—state by state.

“The founders and framers intended that the citizens are involved in making these laws,” Oltorik said. “Our mission is to encourage constituents to visit their state legislators regularly, so that when they go to their regular session in the spring, they have the tools to make improvements to these statutes.

“If the citizens aren’t doing that, it creates a vacuum that will be filled by big pharma lobbyists… Your state rep’s district office is probably within 20-30 minutes of where you live.”

Not On Our Watch is preparing an online, instructor-led “Citizen Lobbyist Course” that will enable NOOW volunters to go out (preferably in pairs) and be effective. We’ll keep you posted!

~Alan Graham, staff writer

Karen Schoen is a public speaker, former marketing consultant and journalist, director of the Panhandle Patriots, advisor to Florida Citizens Alliance, advocate, and citizen lobbyist. Her focus as an educator is connecting the dots.

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