Everyone has their own COVID-19 story, and in the beginning, it was a dream come true for Cutler's on Staten Island.
After years of saving and sacrificing, Curtis and Liz Cutler were building their first home just as the fraud began. Due to New York's lockdown orders, they and their two children had to hunker down and isolate like the rest of us. But it's a place that really got them excited, and Curtis would end up completing much of the renovation project on his own.
The Cutlers questioned whether Christians could take the spiritual risk of remaining in a place that seemed destined for their own destruction.
And because Mr. Curtis was considered an essential worker, his earnings did not take a hit while he performed his duties as a city sanitation worker. With people Netflixing and quarantining in fortresses, more garbage needs to be collected than ever before, and Mr. Curtis understandably believes that healthy men like him, in their 30s or 40s, are suffering from the coronavirus. I was confident that the risk of the virus was almost zero.
Although school closures were no picnic for children, he was confident that families would get through this crisis with the help of strong faith. Curtis is a deacon in the same evangelical church he grew up in, and his grandfather once helped lead as an elder.
And sure, his faith helped him get through, but not without a price. Because when vaccine mandates were lifted in late 2021, everything went bad. It was a time of choice. Does he count himself among the sheep and bleating goats in the Gods of Big Pharma?
Curtis applied for a religious exemption, but there was little concern that he might not receive one as a deacon. However, Curtis was refused and fired shortly afterward, even though several members of the sanitation department who attended the same church as him were refused.
“We were considered essential workers until we weren't,” Curtis said in an interview with the New York Mandate Podcast, which features stories like his.
Joined by 15 of his fellow sanitation workers, Curtis refused to accept his dismissal. They filed a lawsuit in Staten Island Supreme Court in October 2022 and won. But pharma fascists appealed the ruling, and the situation persists more than two years after Mr. Curtis was supposed to return to work.
The process was a punishment, and the Cutlers eventually decided they were no longer willing to be its victims. It's time to move.
They remain involved in legal appeals and continue to pressure the New York City Council to approve Resolution 5, albeit from afar. The measure would reinstate city employees who were fired over vaccination requirements, but it has not been applied in New York City since Mayor Eric Adams. It was canceled nearly two years ago. With no relief in sight, Curtis reflected on their situation and concluded that if they stayed put, their family would “slowly bleed out.”
They couldn't afford to stay in New York. The Cutlers also questioned whether Christians could take the spiritual risk of remaining in a place that seemed destined for their own destruction.
Yes, that meant selling their new dream home. Yes, that meant leaving the church where Curtis grew up, served as a deacon and where his family worshiped for three generations. But when, like the Cutlers, a child has to go to the hospital without insurance because of the state's petty tyranny, difficult decisions must be made.
Curtis and Liz now call the red state of South Carolina home, refugees fleeing the chaos of New York. Like many people in this situation, this is a burden they never expected to carry. But it reminded them that the things that were most important were worth fighting for and that the Lord would never abandon them. So they move on.
“We are told not to be afraid of humans,” Curtis said, referring to his choice to refuse to attack COVID-19 and the path that decision set for his family. “My driver's license may have Caesar's stamp on it, but it's not on my body. It belongs to the Lord.”
