Pair say they would risk jail to oppose any vaxx mandate!

BAYBORO – Almost the 21^st Century equivalent of Patrick Henry’s famous 1775 vow to “Give me liberty, or give me death,” Pamlico County Commissioners Candy Bohmert and Missy Baskervill drew an unmistakable line in the sand Monday night during debate over whether elected officials should comply with any federal edict to mandate vaccines for 170 county government employees.

Serious, heartfelt pledges from the two Republican women came quickly when Commission Chairman Doug Brinson offered a lighthearted quip that “we don’t want any of us to go to jail over this.”

“I will,” replied a no-nonsense Bohmert – immediately joined by even more emphatic Baskervill, who shouted “I will, too.”

Earlier in the evening, Bohmert had distributed a brief statement to her colleagues on the seven-member board, reprinted here with Bohmert’s permission:

“I oppose any mandate of this type from OSHA or any other federal agency. The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate has been around since at least 30 A.D. in the Roman Empire. It says,’when a superior or higher ranking civil authority issues an unjust or immoral law, policy, or court order, the lower or lesser ranking civil authority has the right and duty to refuse to obey that superior authority. The lesser magistrate can, if necessary, resist the superior authority.’

“We have the right to oppose this unjust and immoral mandate.

“I recognize it is no small matter to resist the authority of the federal government. There must be an objective standard to know if the mandate is right or wrong. The Law of God is this standard for me. God’s law is the standard upon which our system of laws and government were founded. In our day, many people have lost the understanding of the source of our government and how it is supposed to work.

“As an elected official, I put my hand on the Bible and swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the State of North Carolina as well as the United States Constitution. Both of those are based in God’s law and neither requires us to subject ourselves to the political whims of the federal bureaucracy. Both of these Constitutions I swore to uphold begin with ‘WE the PEOPLE.” Free people must not tolerate tyranny. We must retain our freedom to choose.

“I will not concede the freedom of the people of Pamlico County. Anything that destroys our freedom to choose has the effect of putting us in bondage. This mandate is unlawful.

“I believe that the choice we make will have natural as well as eternal consequences.

“I object to the mandate. I object to the federal government seeking to usurp the power of the lesser magistrate and the freedom of individuals.”