Civics lessons from school board member: Masking kids is ok, because ‘it’s not a fundamentally free society’

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New Anchorage School Board member Kelly Lessens waxed philosophic at the end of Tuesday’s board meeting. The board had just rubber-stamped the mask mandate implemented by Superintendent Deena Bishop, and the meeting was coming to a close when Lessens issued her remarkable statement: She supports the masking of children because “It’s not really a fundamentally free society.”

Lessens went on to explain that she doesn’t drive on the wrong side of the road or sell alcohol or tobacco to children, nor does she pass a school bus when its lights are flashing.

To her, masking children is a safety precaution for the children and until every child 12 years and older whose parents want them to be vaccinated is vaccinated, plus two weeks beyond that time for good measure, that’s where she will stand on the issue.

Lessens is a Democrat who joined the school board after winning in April, although narrowly.

Over 100 parents testified and the board received another 914 emails from parents, most who do not support the superintendent’s actions.

“I support caution as we move forward in this Covid moment,” Lessens said. “And I see it as a moment.”

Roll tape:

Read: Mask outrage: Parents testify they’ll pull their kids from Anchorage public schools

129 COMMENTS

  1. “It’s not really a fundamentally free society.” She is exactly correct, and we become less free with every vote for a progressive leftist.

      • It makes more sense to just make teachers wear masks, gloves, face shield and scrubs or whatever the hell they want for their own protection and not force these rules of distance and masks for kids.
        But I digress, because cause teachers have all gotten their shots and should shut up about it all!
        I get it, though. Teachers’ unions finally get more power than they know what to do with.
        Too bad our own children have to suffer for their perceived political gain.

    • It’s not just the progs it’s the entire government no person can handle the one ring without going authoritarian remember even desantis locked down

      • But the really perverse thing, and something that I have noted from the beginning, is that all the leftists do not just accept all the mandates resignedly, with any sort of regrets. No, they positively EMBRACE the mandates, with seeming joy and self-righteous glee! It is a sign of the sickness in their souls, I think.

  2. Yep. They offered the shots. Then they begged you to get them after the death toll rose. Now it will be mandatory. All the hiders currently infecting AK should stay hid in the hills. The tax doggers, the hippies, the draft doggers, the Cho mol’s, the drain on society. Be part of the solution.

    • Yep… They offered the shots.. They’re playing “smiley face” and offering a free donut with your shots. People can smell a lie and shy away. Because people are not falling for the SCAMdemic, leftists are now raging about sending jab teams to people’s houses and forcing them to get the shots. What’s next? Force people into boxcars because they failed to drink the koolaid like you and “coleman” did…? Ironic.. Dachau is now a museum. It documented the horrors and tried to warn the world. You should go there sometime, maybe you’ll learn something.

      • Heir hermanhoff, you seem to have a beef but I can’t figure out what it is other than like some alaskans you just don’t like being told what to do which makes you a crotchety old fart.

        • I do not like being told what to do as you put it. I want freedom not you telling me what’s right or wrong. Maybe we need to split the country and you can go live with the mask-wearing, virus-poking, truth-withholding bunch.

    • I am old enough to remember when liberals were all about personal choice, freedom, and rights. Now it is all about do what the liberal wants, or get punished.
      .
      No wonder Abbie Hoffman took his own life.

      • Exactly, CBMTTEK.
        .
        An honest left-winger of 30 or 40 years ago would not only not recognize today’s so-called leftists, who are really just simply fascists pure and simple, they would spit on the latter, as today’s so-called leftists are a repudiation of almost everything that honest left-wingers and progressives of past decades stood for.

          • Perhaps not facists.
            Nazis.
            Commies.
            Socialists.
            Maybe not facists.
            .
            Then again. Considering all of the above want to place the all powerful state above personal liberty, what really is the difference?

    • WTH do you care, Mr. “I got the vaccine, then I got Covid”? You left a (mostly) free state, went to another (mostly) free state, and now are doing your best to convince (mostly) free people to give up more of their freedoms. I submit you would be much more comfortable in NY, CA, or any other state that has cheerfully given all their freedom to the nanny state. You grow extremely tiresome, a prime example of someone trying to “Californicate” your new choice of residence.

    • Because the shot is soooooo good that those who get it shall be forever free of worry about catching COVID. And the shot is soooooo safe that no one suffers side effects or death, unlike the Swine Flu vaccine of 1977, which was shelved after 3 (yes, 3) deaths attributed to it. Since progressives seem to hate everyone else so much, I would think they would discourage the shot for the ignorant masses. Or is there another agenda?

    • Did you read the news were 74% of the new COVID cases in Massachusetts were people who are fully vaccinated? Some are in the hospital, and there have been a few deaths from COVID in the vaccinated. They are telling people who have been vaccinated to mask up, because they carry an even higher viral load than people who have not been vaccinated, (per the CDC).

    • Yes Greg, the solution, the unknown solution that has killed over 7,000 to date and caused hundreds of thousands of adverse reactions and has proven helpless in keeping those injected with it from getting Covid-19. Yup, be part of the solution my friend. But allow us the the majority in this Nation , the yet un-jabbed, who still can think critically, the freedom to choose whether we take an experimental treatment or not. After all Greg, that is the American Way!

    • When I grew up we all ken pox, mumps snd measles. There were no vaccines. Many if not most of us grew up to be productive citizens and not draft dodgers, hippies, etc. I am not anti vaccine but absolutely do not believe in forced or coerced vaccines. And by the way, look at statistics of shingles, one that has an almost useless vaccine, but used to be rare, back when kids were allowed to get chicken pox as chicken pox exposure keeps immunity to shingles. Now no more chicken pox but lots and lots of shingles. Perhaps in time that will wan as it is a result of having had chicken pox, or maybe it will mutate. Who knows. All in all forced vaccines are never a good idea and getting a virus most often results in a better immune system.

    • Precisely how many cases of COVID were due to unvaccinated kiddos? How many of those cases would masking have prevented? I’ll wait for your learned response. Cheers –

    • Amazing. You just managed to insult your entire political and cultural heritage in one fell swoop. Well done! #dontgiveupyourdayjob #maybearunforschoolboard

    • That would be a good thing …… the non vaccinated staying away from the scared vaccinated. You should really just wear a sign that says “Non vaccinated people do not approach”. We would stay away.

  3. Wow. A memeber of the school board helping to guide our school district who believes we do not (maybe she meant “should not”) live in a free society. It is apparent which direction she wants to steer the boat.
    I forget, have long is a board member term?

  4. Incredible. This poor woman lacks a fundamental understanding of the human person and the laws in accord with reason that make living together in community possible.
    In short, she confuses “freedom” with “license.”

  5. And the board didn’t even vote…what a bunch of sniveling pansies. No way to hold their feet to the fire when elections come around again, bc there’s no vote on record. ?

  6. Wow!! Masks are very unhealthy to wear as well.

    You talk about spreading bacteria! Wear a mask. Stupid idiotic people.

    Parents send hour kids to school no mask. Protest! Seems if you protest you win!

  7. She cites various examples of rules that limit freedom. And I guess you can say that’s true. But those rules are generally agreed to and consented to by most of the population. That is, through the consent of the governed. It’s not carte blanche. Listening to her reasoning though it sounds like she wants to make the rule because, in her view, its best for everyone. But if there is a very large group who disagree to this limit on freedom she may not hold “consent” except her own. That’s a dictator.

    • Winner!
      .
      “…those rules are generally agreed to and consented to by most of the population. That is, through the consent of the governed….”
      .
      There is no such thing as a “mandate” that is through the consent of the governed.

  8. Ms. Lessens argument is flawed. All the items she cited as being compliant with are backed by written laws… there currently is not a law requiring individuals to wear masks… and therefore no legal enforcement backing her “policy”…

  9. It’s quite apparent that K-Lessens needs a mask! Maybe(?), even a muzzle too! Ensure to get your rabies shots if you’re around this one and, definitively keep the kids away from her as she exudes a deep leftist mindset that surely will brainwash the innocent.

      • Greg, your ‘arguments’, such as they are, are consistently nothing but a putrid and vile blend of illogical and irrational hypocrisy, arrogance, authoritarianism, and plain old ignorance and stupidity.
        Seriously, I cannot believe that anyone with enough functioning brain cells to activate a computer or phone could repeatedly and routinely post the nonsense that you do here.

  10. Lessens Learned:

    Lessens says we’re not free
    Must wear the mask is her plea
    The board wants to muzzle
    Flexing schoolyard muscle
    Lesson learned; no vote for thee

  11. See what you have Anchorage, communists infested every part of your government and school system. Stand up for your children and say NO!

  12. Everybody ask this question, why are these people pushing so hard for masks and to be vaccinated for a disease that kills less than a 1/2 a percent of the people it infects. If it was truly about saving people we would be wearing helmets when we drive our cars. Is it about control, power or maybe it is just a mental disorder (liberalism) but whatever is driving this segment of society we better figure it out fast and stop it or our country as we know it will be no more. ” Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Ben Franklin

  13. My 3 kids didn’t get sick once last year. It was amazing and very productive not having to miss work days. I’m glad we can start the year off right and 100 angry voices didn’t deter the right decision.

    • Gee… wonder what school you sent your kids to last year?
      .
      Last time I checked, the in person classes were…. well… practically non-existent. And, if you are talking about before the schools were shut down, kids were not wearing masks then.
      .
      So, if your kids did not get sick, it was not because of masks.

      • I really do not understand why progressives are so adamant that everyone receive the experimental, unapproved RNA injection. I am not anti-vax, and do recommend it for those in the at-risk categories for which it was intended (elderly, comorbidities, institutionalized, etc.). Only by allowing the virus to run its course through society to create herd immunity will we be rid of it, and there is evidence that the injection is actually causing the resistant mutations. So why do progressives insist that everyone, down to infants, take the potentially deadly shot? I really want to know.

  14. What a terrible person this lady is. There really isn’t a cute or witty way to say it, she’s just..bad.

  15. We keep seeing something odd…pro-vaccine advocates telling us that everything will be so much better once everyone has gotten the mRNA “vaccine.”
    It’s logically inconsistent with other pro-vaccine statements and warnings…such as advising the “vaccinated” to wear masks.
    The companies that created these franken-vaccines tell us that they:
    1. DON’T prevent you from getting Covid, and
    2. DON’T prevent you from spreading Covid.
    So let’s pretend that everyone is now “vaccinated” …what now?
    Has Covid been driven to extinction?
    No…because the “vaccinated” are now passing it around.
    Worse, now that, in our nirvana of mass gene therapy treatment, everyone has had the jab the Covid virus will naturally mutate through the mechanism of survival of the fittest into a “vaccine” resistant variant.
    It’s plain old evolutionary science and even pro-vaccine doctors are warning about it.
    We can’t vaccinate our way out of this and by trying to do so we could actually make the situation a lot worse.
    For you non-believers do some research and reading on Antibody-dependent enhancement before making ignorant comments.

      • The vaccines for polio, small pox, measles, and chicken pox. Those aren’t coronavirus, so those viruses are more stable and don’t mutate, as the influenza, common cold, and wuhan virus’ respond to vaccines and then create a greater threat and dangerous coronavirus type.

      • Yeah, dang polio, seasonal flu, all the shots children are required to attend school. Not sure how those parents can live with themselves when one of them gets sick and dies or is disfigured. The human mind is self-serving though.

        • Greg, those are all tried and true vaccines, not an untested experimental RNA injection with no idea to long term consequences. Also, Corona viruses are known for frequent mutations (perhaps even increased by vaccination) so, like HIV, are very difficult to build a vaccine.

  16. Well, you have your orders. Take your kids out of school now. You cannot say you were not warned.
    Can’t afford to you say? Can’t afford not to I say.

  17. It’s not your FREEDOM to yell FIRE in a Crowded Movie Theater either dummies.

    611K dead Americans and you clowns keep showing everybody how stupid, delusional, narcissistic, and trite you really are. Pathetic!

    • Take out those killed by democrat governors and the number dramatically shrinks. 518,000 VAERS reports as of two weeks ago, of which nearly 12,000 deaths directly attributed to the RNA shot (not a vaccine) which does not prevent the disease. Why are you people so adamant about a dangerous shot with unknown consequences that does little to help, EXCEPT for in the at-risk population?

    • That 600,000+ number of American deaths is a grossly exaggerated figure and a flat-out lie, and just another example of the pernicious and malicious propaganda being spewed by the political establishment and the corporate media.
      By the CDC’s OWN data, the number of Americans who have died as a RESULT of the Wuhan Virus, and not merely WITH it, is only about 6% of that number, or less than 40,000. And we now know that even THAT number is probably inflated by at least a factor of two, due to thoe determinations of COVID-19 infections in those who dies having been made using the questionable and invalid PCR method, which is NOT a test and is not valid as a diagnostic tool, as vehemently and repeatedly stated by its very inventor.

      • Trouble is Greg, what if… you are wrong? I mean an experimental jab that contains what? Was rushed to market, no clinical trials, evidently will not keep you from contracting covid and foisted upon a population who was forced fed fear! Only time will tell Greg, in the meantime try to not be so mean?

        • Oh darn you caught me. The shot is full of alien DNA and it’s going to turn down all of us into aliens. They’re recloning the entire world with alien DNA and going to make us all turn green and have big dark eyes. Those dang Roswell guys how dare they.

    • Why exactly can I not yell FIRE! in a crowded theater? When I enter the theater do I lose the ability to utter a simple four letter word?
      .
      No, it is because doing so has a demonstrable and reasonable likelihood of causing panic and injury to others.
      .
      Exactly how does a person’s refusal to take a vaccine have a demonstrable likelihood of causing injury to the general public? Please explain how. The “evidence” of asymptomatic transmission is anecdotal at best, and has not been clearly demonstrated through any repeatable studies. Which is totally different about knowingly causing a panic.
      .
      Which of course leads me to ask. Who is really stupid, delusional, and trite? The people who are asking questions, or the ones who are using inappropriate and disconnected analogies?

  18. Shall we mandate helmets, NOMAX coveralls, kevlar vests, lifejackets, and steel toed boots? Let kids breathe. Suicide is a bigger threat than the virus.

    • Welcome Back Sven!
      Please be on the Right side of Truth, Justice and Liberty knowing what is the Truth beyond your own understanding.
      Alaska can use more new residents who’d go up agianst these kind of Kelly Lessin type thinkers/manipulators.

      It could be worse you could be moving to California or Arizona. Hahaha! Those places are squaring off worse with these types of Kelly Lessins.
      At least on Alaska we have it on a smaller scale because of being spread out and less community populations.

      • It is a double edge for us. My relocation is for work and it is in downtown Anchorage. BUT, it does get us back to Alaska. We will be looking to get as far out as possible while taking the winter commute into consideration. I am of the mind that we all have our own minds and we should all be free to make our own choices in regards to many of these issues. That whole freedom and self-reliance and accountability for our own actions seems to be losing support in this country. A shame. These are my children. We will continue homeschooling.

    • That’s just it. Due to mail in voting, we have no idea who really voted these school board members in.

  19. She tries to impress us with what she believes to be intellectually incisive comments. That is, being prohibited from passing a school bus proves ours is not a free country.
    .
    How dull must one be not to realize “free country” is a relative term? Freedom has always come with responsibilities. Granted, our freedoms are under attack by the left (the likes of her) but there has never been a country in the history of the world with more individual liberty.

      • Okay my good friend. Please name any country in the history of the world that guaranteed as much individual liberty to its citizens. Example: in the Roman Republic (509-27BC) there was no formal constitutional protection of freedom of speech.
        .
        Please give an example of where I am wrong. Please describe the “total crock” you allude to.

        • Oh you can say what you want that’s fine. Just keep on doing your day in day out tasks. The shadow government wants you to think you’re in control. In reality you don’t control a thing now, do you? Think about it.

        • You make an assumption about this member that is only your opinion and then go on to attack her as being dull. Nothing but a typical strawman BS argument that you can’t back up.
          That’s what I call a total crock. Your assumption is nothing but BS.

    • Wayne,
      This woman is the embodiment of why EDUCATION is the gutter of American Academia. Her sophomoric argument regarding traffic rules, (mandatory laws obeyed by permitted licensed drivers using a State Owned Road) to the act of taking a BREATH, an involuntary function common to all Humans is, well Breathtaking…Only a fool or an Authoritarian would attempt to link these two subjects under the heading of, “we do not live in a free society”. Especially so given the evidence as to whether Masks are effective in thwarting infection. I think what she is saying is that you do not have control over choices for your own body, and that the STATE has authority over your body. I submit that this Woman isn’t the only person in Education to hold such opinions. Thankfully we do, as you point out still live in a “Free Society” and as such can take our Children and Grandchildren out of the cesspool that is Publik Indoctination, er, Edukation…

      • Ah, she must have read ‘The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress’ where breathing is taxed. More proof she lives in a fantasy world. Of course, usually only intelligent people read Heinlein.

  20. Kelly Lessens was unaware when she said, “…that she doesn’t drive on the wrong side of the road or sell alcohol or tobacco to children, nor does she pass a school bus when its lights are flashing,” that she was gaslighting, using a manipulative form, thinking it’ll make her main point stronger. There was no point to add it, those three common courtesies have nothing to do with mask wearing.

    Actually we abide by those rules it’s because of there is imminent danger in them. Mask wearing is proven it doesn’t protect people from danger. She stated her main point well enough without this useless information. By her thinking, she believes mask wearing does protect us from danger. Kelly Lessens mind is already warped.

  21. Manipulators make me feel Dizzy. Listening to that part Kelly goes off on her example what she doesnt do is why I thought I better call it out in my last comment. Just in case someone else felt dizzy and didnt know why.

  22. ….”fundamentally not a free society”? Compared safety precautions to lack of freedom?

    Read up on the 1918 Spanish Flu. More people succumb to bacterial pneumonia than the Spanish Flu itself! What caused bacterial pneumonia? Wearing a FORKEN mask!

    • What causes bacterial pneumonia was the infection that set in after the bodies immune response overreacted. That’s what steroids do nowadays is stop the inflammation so that you don’t get a bacterial infection but of course they didn’t have those back then. You really need to dust off your medical journals and read up on this stuff.

  23. The school board and superintendent are not following the science:
    ….
    1. Children are not vulnerable to getting sick from or spreading Covid.
    2. Masks do very little, if anything, to prevent Covid infections.
    3. Chronic mask wearing creates a multitude of other health problems.

    But they don’t care. It’s not about protecting children. It’s about indoctrinating them, and controlling you meddling parents.

    • No it doesn’t Dan. Children in Florida wear masks every day and are completely fine. Other governors wish they hadn’t stopped the masked mandate since hindsight is always 20/20. I’m thinking you maybe suffering some some sort of encephalitis. Your thoughts aren’t correctly rationalizing things.

      • Try doing some research, Greg. Everything I said is true.
        Children in Florida are doing fine because they are NOT being forced to wear masks. Look at the data. Look at the science.

  24. The MSM and the Biden admin thought all of the Trump cultists would get the shot.
    That didn’t happen – but, all the Lefties got the shot.
    What will happen will the shot takers all start developing micro blood clots, enlarged hearts, enlarged brain, gullian-barre syndrome, auto immune disorders, fertility issues over the next few years???
    The Deep State, the Feds, CDC, and BigPharma CANNOT have a large control group who did not take the gene therapy – BECAUSE they will be held accountable for what they’ve done.
    This will be world shattering – right up there with the Armenian genocide, the Nazi Final Solution, Mao Tse Tung Cultural Reformation, the Killing Fields of Cambodia, the Harvest of Sorrow in the Ukraine, and the Purge by Stalin and Lenin – amongst others. The Lemmings are jumping off the cliff – actually believing what the Biden, the MSM, pop culture, and BigPharma are telling them about the gene therapy.
    Wow.
    Can’t make this stuff up!!!

    • And yet here you are doing the exact same thing. You forgot about chicken little. Is the sky falling lol? Trump people did go out and get shots and while they may be getting a mild case of covid now. The ones in the hospital dying right now are people who did not get a shot at all. I wonder where you guys get all this information that it’s totally inaccurate you just sit around dreaming up all day and some chat board when you come out from underneath your rock or where you are hiding in the woods?

      • Actually, in many places those in the hospitals and those dying are ones who had the shot. But this can be misleading without knowing the demographics. See my posts above concerning Israel. And these things take time to see the true effects. It was a decade of study after mustard gas exposure before they figured out that it could treat cancer-the origin of chemotherapy..

  25. Equating laws that were written and voted on by elected officials to a mandate she is getting from CNN and unelected health officials is rich. This woman has clearly been irreversibly brainwashed and there is no hope for her. I’m sure that Hitler had many minions like her all too willing to carry out whatever came down from you know who. Unfortunately for us, she has the power to harm our children.

  26. True freedom is an environment in which one may resist evil and do what is right, noble, and good without fear of reprisal. It is the presence of justice tempered with mercy. It is a rule of law based on fundamental moral truths that are easily understood and fairly and effectively administered.

    With that said, there is no absolute morality. You simply do the best you can based mostly upon your upbringing, life experiences, etc

    So YES! The United States IS considered a fundamentally free society!

    If Lessens was a teacher in Iran, I would agree with her.

    What a dope!

    • What rule of law would that be? Are you referring to the rule of law where justices Force prosecutors to plea with the guilty and accept a lesser charge? Or maybe it’s the real law that lets people off with probation until they have three felonies. Is it the rule of law that still allows people to drive without car insurance and if in an accident there’s no civil reprise because the people don’t own anything? We don’t live in a free society. This isn’t Shangri-La or Utopia. Our society is very flawed. When the shadow government can influence elections, kill off presidents as well as top generals, do you really think you have a free society? It turns out you’re nothing but a big dreamer with your head in the clouds.

      • Hmmm? I partially agree with this post. I never agree with your post but I do read as many as possible just to get a good laugh. This one however …..

  27. Let me follow Lessen’s logic here. My freedom is limited inasmuch I cannot do harm to others. OK, I have no problem with that. But how am I doing harm to others if I am healthy and vaccinated and don’t wear a mask? She wants to place restrictions on people on the rare chance they might harm others. Based on that logic, she should advocate a ban on driving, because there is a slight chance you might harm others by driving.

  28. Commie Greg.
    Lackey of BigPharma.
    Lackey of Biden.
    Lackey of the MSM.
    Lackey of pop culture.
    Fauci lackey.
    Enjoy the vax and the disruption to your natural immune system.
    I’m sure the above would NEVER lie to you – they really care about your health and well being, right?
    Drug Profits, more gov’t control, the great Re-Set, de-population – nothing to see here, move along.
    Baahahahaha…

  29. Sen. Rand Paul: Mask mandates and lockdowns from petty tyrants? No, not again. Choose freedom. Resist. They can’t arrest us all. They can’t keep all your kids home from school.

  30. Our public servants receive their just power from the consent by the people per the republic’s US Consitution. Tje Constitution is a contract like a painter for your house. He paints your house, not the cat and is free to drive your care, abuse your family. If it’s not in the contract you aren’t free to grow the government. If it is not there in the Constitution contract you CAN’T do it. Point to your personal authority and subject matter jurisdiction in the Constitution. If it’s not there expressly you can’t do it. Your emolument doesn’t grow with your enjoyment of tyranny. The emolument does not delegate and grant that authority to you.

  31. Per the Federalist 45 if you don’t have personal and subject matter jurisdiction and you must have both it is tyranny and not not valid. Government is to secure our rights never offend them (per the Magna Carter if 1215). Parents alone, not Grandparents, have that jurisdiction subject matter. If you don’t comprehend “Lex Non Scripta” you are wrong for the job.

      • Not doing what “we instructed” is grounds for firing. No legislative body makes or alters due process. They can’t alter it. They can only declare it. We are not an aristocracy nor a monarchy. We have a right to a republican form of government. If you are in a legislative body you may NOT act as an executive I don’t care how sincere you are. It’s not your emolument. You were not voted the executive.

    • I find your comments refreshing and teach such to my children (though at least one son says life is much easier to be ignorant). Those accumulating power strive for the masses to be ignorant little drones, providing the labor so that those at the top may live in luxury. Such was envisioned by Plato some 2500 years ago with his three tiered ‘tripartate’ society of the rulers, guardians (enforcing will of the rulers), and the workers. Some have determined a ratio of 5/15/80. Every time tried, from contemporary Syracuse to the Soviet Union, his philosophy ended badly. So sad that the failures of history are no longer part of education.
      And just a note: Many signers of the Magna Carta hail from my ancestry, including John (he was the bad brother, not the good one, as my great, great grandmother said).

  32. Found this quote from Mike Rowe, regarding elected officials, journalist and some medical experts:

    “They’re always certain, usually wrong, incapable of shame, and utterly void of humility. Is it any wonder millions find them unpersuasive?”

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