The battle between public health and personal freedom is a familiar one in Tom Green County, of which San Angelo resident Caleb Wallace took an active role.
On July 4, 2020, Caleb helped organize "The Freedom Rally." A flyer for the event called it a peaceful protest by people "sick of the government being in control of our lives." Signs carried by protesters that day criticized the wearing of masks, business closures, the science behind COVID-19, and liberal media.
Upset the United States flag wasn't waving at the Tom Green County courthouse on July 4, rally attendees raised their own. The person who tied the U.S. flag to the pole was Caleb Wallace.
"We are not real happy with the current state of America at the moment," a then-healthy Wallace said in July.
In addition to the rally, Caleb organized "The San Angelo Freedom Defenders," a group "to educate and empower citizens to make informed choices concerning local, statewide, and national policy and to encourage them to actively participate in their duty to secure God-given and constitutionally protected rights," as stated on the group's Facebook page.
Using both the Freedom Defender's page and his own social media presence, Caleb criticized the government's handling of the pandemic and guidelines advocated by health experts.
"Show me the science that masks work," Caleb wrote on the City of San Angelo's official Facebook in December 2020. "Show me the evidence that school closures work. Show me the evidence that lock-downs work."
In 2020, Caleb appeared in video interviews with local media outlets denouncing mask policies and school closures at San Angelo ISD. As late as April 2021, he penned a letter demanding the school district rescind all its COVID-19 protocols, claiming that science didn't support their need.
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