My 84-year-old mother has been imprisoned for the past nine months. Not even family is allowed to visit – a cruelty not visited on death-row inmates. My mother didn’t kill anyone or even hold up a 7-11.

Her crime? Dementia.

She is imprisoned on account of this in a “care” facility which operates under the Gesundheitsbefiehls – health decrees – of Governor Ralph “Coonman” Northam. He has decreed that visitors are verboten, no matter the extenuating circumstances – including even no possibility of transmitting the ‘Rona to the imprisoned elderly person.

My mom has “tested positive,” according to the warden of the facility. Therefore, there is no longer the excuse that I might transmit the ‘Rona (asymptomatically, of course) to my mother, since she already has it.

And I am quite willing to assume the “risk” of acquiring the ‘Rona from her since it presents almost no serious threat to me, as I am not elderly or diabetic or afflicted with clogged arteries, the underlying co-morbidities that account for almost all (more than 90 percent) of the deaths we keep hearing about and which tend to result in death regardless of catching cold.

There is no medical reason for denying me a chance to actually see my mother in person – and for her to see me – ideally, while she still remembers who I am (for her sake) and before she passes away (for mine).

We could be placed in a Corona Room, just the two of us. No harm could possibly come from this.

But they won’t let us. Because facts don’t matter. Cruelty does.

It is an extrapolation of the Diaper Decrees and restrictions imposed on the healthy who refuse to wear the Holy Rag, who aren’t sick and therefore can’t get anyone sick. But who are treated with contempt – and worse – for declining to play-pretend they are sick.

But this is worse. My mom is sick – and because she is elderly, there is a very good chance she will die. There may not be much time left for me to see her. Alive, that is.

But I am not allowed to see her, despite the ‘Rona “precautions” having become an irrelevance. The horse has left the barn, in spite of all their “precautions” – which is itself a commentary on the pointlessness of all these “precautions.” My mom has been imprisoned (along with other old folks) for the past nine months in a practically hermetically sealed environment, where everything is – so we are told – constantly wiped down and where everyone wears the Holy Rag and where every staffer is “tested” regularly – und so weiter.

And yet, the ‘Rona is rampant. I am informed by the warden that half a dozen other inmates have “tested positive” along with my mom.

So what’s the point – if it isn’t sadism?

Why this cruel isolation of rapidly deteriorating elderly people and the equally cruel isolation of their family members from the declining elderly? How did the Coonman become the arbiter of who is allowed to see their own mother or father?

How is it that they can maintain this vicious farce when their excuse – protecting the vulnerable elderly – no longer applies?

I have written to the warden asking precisely this question and offering to sign any form they wish to present absolving them of all liability in the event my mom gives me the ‘Rona. I’d even agree to staying put at home for the two week “incubation” period after visiting her, to assure the nervous I didn’t get the ‘Rona and so pose no risk to anyone else.

It cuts no ice. Because this is not about “health.” It never was. If it were, reasonable accommodations would be made – and reason itself would govern the whole business. People would not be presumed sick, especially absent any symptoms of sickness.

If “masks” worked, they would have. Instead, people are bullied for objecting to being treated as spreaders of a sickness they haven’t got and for objecting to the wearing of “masks” that don’t work.

Elderly people in the twilight of their days are denied the opportunity to visit with their children and grandchildren, whom they are much more likely to never see again than their children and grandkids are likely to get sick, much less die, of the ‘Rona.

Reason – humanity – aren’t applicable.

A false humanity is used to impose its opposite, by people whose cruelty is equaled only by their arrogance.

I will probably never see my mom again. And for that I will never forgive the Coonman or his accomplices. It is my hope that when they are in their dotage and hoping to see their families one last time, that a bureaucrat tells their families no – and that they, too, depart this world alone, without the comfort of anyone holding their hands and telling them they are loved – just as they have imposed the same cruelty on thousands of families across this country.

May God damn them all!

Eric Peters is a nationally syndicated automotive columnist. He is the author of the 2011 book, Automotive Atrocities and Road Hogs.