Is "safety" the real reason schools
are closed for today's solar eclipse?

For today's solar eclipse, USA Today reports: "Some schools are planning early dismissal, late drop-off, switching to e-learning or closing altogether on the day of the eclipse. For some, it's a matter of safety and for others, simply logistics."

Gotta keep those kids safe, eh? From fake pandemics, from climate change and, now, from the sun itself.

While I'm all for keeping kids out of government indoctrination centres, the safety argument makes little sense to me. If they were really concerned about safety, then they'd just close the curtains during class.

It feels like the government is trying to make people afraid of being outside. Better stay home and stare at a little screen.

I remember there was an eclipse when I was in high school. A few of us ditched class to go watch it. We brought some household items (colander, magnifying glass, pinhole cereal box) that we used to project the celestial event onto paper.

One of the kids also brought his pet ferret.

None of us went blind. Not even the ferret.

For this solar eclipse, I’m a little west of the best geographic viewing location. We had super-thick cloud cover this morning, but it’s clearing up. So I’ll be making a pinhole camera again and watching the world come to an end.

No ferret this time around. I never liked Matt’s ferret — a cross between a snake and a rat with the personality of a hamster.

John C.A. Manley

PS If schools were really concerned about safety they wouldn’t allow cell phone towers to be erected on school property. The dangers of turning schools into 5G hotspots is being discussed at the 2024 EMF Hazard Summit which starts this Thursday. If you haven’t yet, you can still register for this free online event.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/