A sign of things that are coming

FILE PPHOTO Tony Farkas

I ran across a story last week, and I got chills.

It was run by a Houston television news outlet, so props to them. Full disclosure, though: I am trying to nail down a story myself.

I feel that this event is significant enough, though, that I can mention it here, because I do have verification that it happened.

Also full disclosure: I believe I’ve mentioned these things will happen. I just thought it would take a little longer, and have the weight of government meddling behind it.

Seems that in early May, during a hearing involving a divorce case and child custody arrangements, District Judge Travis Kitchens ordered the parents to get COVID vaccinations in order to complete visitation.

(This information was taken from the Divorce Docket filed in District Court in Trinity County.)

According to the news story, the judge told the respondent in the case, the father, that he would not be allowed to see his children if he did not comply with the order.

I’m pretty gobsmacked at that development, for any variety of reasons, but most notably is how a sitting, elected judge, sworn to uphold laws, asserted a non-existent authority and removed a man’s ability to not only visit his children, but make his own medical decision regarding this shot.

Say what you will about it, the vaccinations are untested, not in the normal manner, and have been shown to occasionally have some pretty stringent side effects.

And while there can be a long, arduous and even dangerous argument to be made that it should not be up to the courts to decide how to handle the end of a relationship (or even require a license to marry, for that matter), the issue here is demand that a private citizen submit to a medical procedure.

All the while dangling the “carrot” of child visitation in front of him (and her), with the “stick,” backed by the force of law, of losing visitation privileges.

Leaving aside the sketchy nature of the vaccine itself, the judge does not have the required medical background to make such decisions. That’s pure danger right there.

The judge does, however, have legal training, and should understand that it’s completely against any and all rights, laws and even common sense for courts to start meddling in these areas. It’s frankly unconscionable.

We citizens have civil rights. These rights, especially those enshrined in the Bill of Rights, are inviolate. If it comes down to the state, through legislators or court officials, making these decisions, then we as a society are completely doomed. Moreover, we as a species will be doomed.

Will judges start ordering lobotomies for defendants who have been found unable to be tried because of mental incompetence, or by reason of insanity?

Will people be ordered to abort unborn children, or conversely, ordered to have children, for whatever whim a judge has?

Will people who have been diagnosed similarly, such as, oh, say, leprosy? It’s happened before, in Hawaii, and the government has a history of segregating people without benefit of trial, such as the Japanese internment camps.

There are ample what ifs to throw out here, but that would be overkill. Suffice it to say that any medical decision cannot be made by anyone other than the interested party. Any lawmaker that proposes things like that (such as the current rage of vaccination passports), or any judge that orders procedures that are none of his business, they need to be voted out of office, or even recalled if egregious enough.

The only other option, one that is unacceptable, is to give up all freedoms.

Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..