{"id":79537,"date":"2021-08-15T13:31:20","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T17:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=79537"},"modified":"2021-08-15T13:31:20","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T17:31:20","slug":"hundreds-protest-mandates-on-covid-19-vaccine-masks-during-oklahoma-freedom-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=79537","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds protest mandates on COVID-19 vaccine, masks during Oklahoma Freedom Rally"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"dateline\">OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Shelby Montgomery<br \/>\nKOCO5<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of people gathered at the state Capitol on Saturday to protest mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates while fighting for their freedom to choose.<\/p>\n<p>A line of people waited outside the Capitol while hundreds filled the rotunda chanting &#8220;USA,&#8221; singing &#8220;America the Beautiful&#8221; and reciting the pledge of allegiance. Some also held signs saying, &#8220;no vaccine mandate,&#8221; &#8220;protect our freedom&#8221; and &#8220;mandate medical freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I do not want to see us be mandated for masks or vaccines because that is our right to choose what&#8217;s best for us,&#8221; one rallygoer said. &#8220;So, that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m here \u2014 to support for freedom, to choose.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We appreciate that the vaccine was made, that it\u2019s offered to us, and I don\u2019t want to be forced to take it,&#8221; another rallygoer named Karen M. said.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Navejas, one of the speakers at the Oklahoma Freedom Rally event, said he thinks mandates are a way of communism taking over the nation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s more of a plan-demic and a scam-demic,&#8221; Navejas said.<\/p>\n<p>The many people in the large crowd that gathered inside the Capitol chanted, sang and made their choice known while not wearing masks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am not worried about this at all,&#8221; Navejas said about being worried the rally could turn into a super-spreader event.<\/p>\n<p>Navejas also told KOCO 5 they chose to have the event at the state Capitol to send a message to those who work there and help make the laws.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.koco.com\/article\/kids-electric-cars-2021\/37212974\">https:\/\/www.koco.com\/article\/kids-electric-cars-2021\/37212974<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}