Editor’s note: The following message was originally posted on Facebook by Elizabeth Welsh, one of the organizers of the Open Alaska group which advocates rolling back many of the oppressive COVID mandates in Anchorage. This is what she would have said to the Anchorage Assembly on Dec. 22 had there been enough time.

Last week, I attended a funeral for my husband’s grandfather. Ray Welsh was 84 years old. He was a teacher, a Bristol Bay fisherman, and an Army veteran. After a stroke affected his mobility in 2019, he moved to a Providence Long Term Care facility.

In March 2020, he was medically kidnapped, and denied any visitation with his family. Even his own wife was unable to visit him. His caretakers and staff could go home every day, interact with their community, then put on PPE and see him daily, but his own family was denied the same privileges.

With nothing to live for, he gave up on life. No major medical event killed him, no stroke, no heart attack, no COVID-19. He simply stopped eating and drinking and died. Completely alone. Without a single loved one to hold his hand. His grieving family denied the right to say goodbye.

They could, however, enter the facility after he died to collect his belongings. All of this was done for his own good. For their own good. So you told us.

History will remember your inhumane lack of compassion. Any of you who continue to extend these devastating mandates are responsible for the destruction of human life left in their wake. It is arrogant and a fatal conceit to dictate that you know what is best for everyone, what is best for me, what is best for Ray Welsh.

I will never forget your arrogance. Have some compassion and quit using a sledgehammer to kill a fly. You are slowly killing us all.

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