Lives, Money, Liberty

I had made a comment on a local news feed article in social media the other day that sparked a little outrage from someone who’s obviously of a different mindset than I am. In a way, based on the stuff he was saying, I believe our mindsets couldn’t be further apart if we were on different planets.  You see, at a time when our country is faced with the virus pandemic that we are, it should be a coming together moment, but in many ways, it is driving people further apart, and needlessly so.

The news, partially local, but mostly national, have been working hard as they always do to instill fear in the masses.  The old saying, “if it bleeds it leads” has never been more strongly in play, and instead of focusing on the dozens upon dozens of thousands of people who have recovered from the virus, many with little or no symptoms, every headline reads “XXX more dead from Covid-19” or something of the like.  Social media is a virus in and of itself in that everyone with a mobile device that can access the internet is posting things and theories of all sorts whether they are fact checked, verified for any kind of accuracy or not, and it becomes a vicious cycle of misinformation.  There are many among us who still believe that if you get this virus it’s a death sentence, which is nowhere close to the truth for the vast majority of those who will become infected.

In addition to the misinformation spread far and wide, with what we’re facing being what should be a coming together moment as stated earlier, peoples’ political ideologies are weaponized in a way that is just shameful.  If it comes from someone from this side or that, it’s obviously a lie because “he” said it, or the intentions are bad because “she is trying to do this”, blah, blah, blah… Seriously, WTF is wrong with some of these people?  Anyone who has read any of the things that I have written, probably understands which side of the isle I come from politically, but this virus should not be treated in any way as political. I want to be very clear on one thing, as I try to be in all matters, I am firmly on the side of individual liberty, period.  This leads back to the back and forth I referred to at the beginning of this writing.

I had made a comment something to the effect that “when the final numbers come in, don’t forget to thank your favorite politician for saving your life when they are patting themselves on the back later because the numbers will be far, far less than any of the so called models or experts predicted”  The statement was made because, while any deaths for any reason are tragic, it is very obvious to me, and as more information about this virus comes to light, I believe most people will see as well, that the government’s reaction to this will have been the biggest overreaction to anything in human history, and the number of lives and businesses destroyed, both here and abroad, will be far greater, and have much more deleterious consequences than the virus itself.  While that may sound a bit presumptive, and to some maybe even harsh, my greater concern is the overbearing infringement upon the individual civil liberties that many state and local governments are engaged in.

In that back and forth, I was then accused of putting “money over lives”, to which I replied that I did not place “money” over life, but I did in fact place “liberty” over life.  Patrick Henry said it best in 1775 when he said “give me liberty, or give me death”.  You see our founders understood it better than anyone, that there is inherent risk in individual liberty, but without liberty, everything else is irrelevant. Our governments of our individual states have taken unprecedented actions to infringe upon the liberties of the individual, actions that stand in complete contrast to the founding of this nation.  Nowhere within the constitution can the words be found, “all this individual liberty stuff goes out the window if some scary virus starts endangering people”.  And just to be clear, the constitution was written to restrict the powers of the government, not grant rights to the people so we do have that.  Our rights, as understood by our founders are natural and given by God, and are not to be infringed upon by government.

While everyone is bickering about the best way to open our economy back up, what the best way to do this or that, or when we can let people get back to living as normal, please remember this:  just because we may not agree on the best way to do it, does not mean we have to tear each other apart because our ideas differ from one another’s.  Neither I, nor the majority of the rest of the people who want to see government get out of the way of things going back to normal are trying to place money over lives.  Reasonable people can disagree on what should be done, but ultimately, it has to be liberty that wins the day, because without individual liberty, the United States of America ceases to exist as founded, and as the greatest nation that was ever created.

Lives, Money and Liberty are not mutually exclusive.  Working toward preserving one should not lead to accusations of lack of concern for the others.  There must be a balanced approach, understanding that there are inherent risks with everything in life, and the risks associated with liberty may be somewhat greater, but I would never choose the alternative!

May God bless our nation in these troubled times, may he give those making decisions that affect so many the guidance they need to do their jobs well.

Please, treat others with kindness, even if they don’t believe or do things as you would.  And lastly, please remember, it is ultimately up to you to make each day what you want it to be, because you cannot control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it.