Free At Last?

 The article I saw warned of pushback against new restrictions put in place to combat COVID-19. Restrictions that are being put in place to slow or even stop the spread of infections. Restrictions that are being put in place to save lives.

Nope. Not in America. All the saving we need is saving from our oppressive government. Is this the same government that wants to limit a woman's access to reproductive care, or the one that wants us all to wear masks so that women can live long enough to make reproductive choices? 

It was a Rhodes Scholar who wrote the words, "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose." The first woman to become Britain's prime minister said, "The price of freedom is still, and always will be, eternal vigilance." The guy who starred as George Gipp suggested, "The price of freedom may be high, but never so costly as the loss of freedom." And it was the guy whom Denzel Washington played who insisted, "The price of freedom is death."

So what we have here seems to be a freedom problem. Seat belts in cars. Helmets on motorcycle riders. No smoking. No drinking and driving. You know, the nanny state. The state that wants to limit your freedoms by keeping us all safe. Safe from each other. Safe from ourselves. That's what all those ingredient labels are for, by the way. And warnings about peanuts and shellfish to keep those with unfortunate allergies from dying because they did not know that shrimp is a shellfish or that grape jelly doesn't act as a protective barrier from peanut butter. 

Which brings me to Jodie Doering, an ICU nurse from South Dakota,  who tells a story of patients she has treated who insist that COVID-19 is a hoax, even as they are dying from the disease. More than eight months into the pandemic, she is confronted by anger and confusion on the part of those patients who resist treatment because they cannot imagine what is killing them. How could this thing that I can't see and don't understand be asphyxiating me? How could going about my normal daily routine have brought me to death's door? Do you suppose there are doctors and nurses who would like to be free from this kind of interaction? 

You bet there are. And even as governors and mayors and city officials across the country scramble to find ways to keep from tumbling even further down the coronavirus hole, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force tweeted,” The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept.” So the aforementioned pushback is not coming from a bunch of maskless nimrods in a Walmart parking lot. It's coming form a bunch of maskless nimrods with degrees from Stanford and jobs in the Trump administration. 

When will we be free of them?