Don't Lock Me Down

For anyone who believes they have the right to work or see loved ones in a hospital or nursing home, these are challenging times.  Three times this month, I dropped my wife off at the ER, not knowing if I would see her alive again.  Waiting for a call from the doctor or a nurse made this very difficult to accept.  In just a few days in March, the world changed.  Many of our Constitutional rights and principles I believed in were gone at the recommendation of a man I never heard of named Neil Ferguson.

I am sure many people are unaware that the world wide shut down came about by one man.  Governments all over the world followed Neil Ferguson's recommendation, even though he did not follow the lockdown he advocated.

The result of this mandatory lockdown has caused a litany of economic, psychological, and social destruction.  When compared with other crises in history, this one is small.  It is not even the most significant public health crisis in history.  However, the lockdown is, without a doubt, the most significant interference with personal liberty in our history. Even in wartime, we never confined the entire population to their homes, 24/7.

During the 1918 Flu, the State quarantined the sick but not the entire population of the nation.  Indeed, the Government has always tried to confine people known to be carrying dangerous infections. But we live in a new world in which, if we are ill, the Government will try to cure us. Like sheep led to the slaughter, we have allowed the Government to take control of our lives against our will even if we are healthy, lest we fall ill and need its services too much.

At this point for me to object to the lockdown is pointless--it happened.  The question is, how do we stop this from happening again?

This is the first time I can remember when a group of lab coat doctors were able to control the entire Government by creating a blind panic from the projections of a flawed model.

I am so tired of hearing government officials talk about science.  This mantra, "science shows," is getting old.  These government officials think they can do whatever they please and avoid criticism by hiding behind a group of lab coats, who have been wrong so many times.

I have not been able to find the science behind the lockdown or the re-opening of the country.  Both the lockdown and ending the lockdown is a political decision, not a scientific one.

My question is this, has the lockdown been worth it?  I do not know the discussions that took place, but did they consider the moral judgments, constitutional values, and the economic consequences involved in their decisions?

If the decision to lockdown was purely medical, why were nursing homes and retirement homes not monitored and previsions made to protect the residents?  Fewer people would have died if the government policies were medical and for the protection of the at-risk people.  I am so tired of hearing the 65+ generation are at risk, and there has been no effort to protect those locked in a room in a facility where the virus is trapped once it enters the door.

This question is a hard question to answer, but it must be explained how many deaths are we prepared to accept to preserve other things we value?  Saving lives is essential, but there are other things important as well.  To make a few comparisons between the lives we gain and the things we have lost during this lockdown.  It is only empty rhetoric when we say life is priceless and nothing else counts.  People say this because they are uncomfortable with the emotions that result from admitting they accept that some people will die because of our liberty and freedom.

Look at the number of wars this country has fought and the number of lives lost, and we find it acceptable because losing their lives for "freedom" is patriotic.  We don't stop driving our cars because  50,000 die each year on the highways.  We love the convenience of being able to travel when we desire to go someplace.    We allow almost one million babies to be aborted each year because we have the right to make a choice.

What kind of life are we protecting when we are lockdown in fear to avoid death?   This Mother's day, there are ad's saying you should not hug or kiss your Mother or grandmother.  You are being advised not even to visit them. What kind of life is this?  Life is a family celebration with children and grandchildren. Life is companionship, an arm around one's back, laughter, or tears shared at less than six feet. These things are not just optional extras. They are life itself. They are fundamental to our humanity, to our existence as social beings. Of course, death is permanent, whereas joy may be temporarily suspended. But the force of that point depends on how temporary it is.

I hear Christians say they trust God, that He is in control, and they believe   He will protect them.  Yet, they live in fear of what might happen.  They are willing to see their churches closed, and the elderly asked to stay at home even when the lockdown is over.  What kind of life is this?  We take life and death risks every day and do not give it a thought.  How many people leave home expecting to return but never do?

Viruses don't just go away. This one will never disappear unless and until there is enough exposure to it to produce collective immunity or an effective vaccine appears.  We live with the common cold, a virus that has no vaccine.  We live with the flu, a virus that has a vaccine the works 40-60 percent of the time.  We may find there is no vaccine for this virus, and we must learn to live with it.

Are we going to allow lockdowns to be compulsory every time there is a new virus?

I am tired of hearing the younger generation yell at me for putting myself and others in danger by exercising my rights and freedom.  People who criticize others because they wish to return to work, or worship together in the church, or eat in a restaurant or vacation on the beach are only spuing hypocritical rhetoric.  I have witnessed these same people in the grocery store without a mask or gloves exposing others to their germs.  These same people have not stopped from going to Lowes, Menards, Walmart, and do so without mask or gloves.  So if you are one of those who have done these things, don't lecture me on the exercising of my rights and freedom.  If you have left your house for any reason, then don't confine me to mine.

A society in which the Government can confine most of the population without controversy is not one in which free people would want to live, regardless of their answers to these questions. Is it worth it?  My answer is no. Voluntary self-isolation is fine, and strongly advisable for the more vulnerable. Most of them will do it by choice. But coercion is not okay. There is no moral or principled justification for it.

My generation will soon be gone, how will the generation of my grandchildren react to the loss of freedoms they willingly gave up to a government that sought only power and control rather than health and safety.