We live in a Federalist society; that is, one that grants specific powers to the national and state entities that comprise our nation. As currently constituted, state and local governments are empowered to adopt legislation and regulations that control public health and safety. The continuing saga of the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the degree to which regulations and mandates on vaccinations, mask wearing and social distancing differ between states and regions of our nation.Â
As fall approaches and a new school year dawns, the continuing spread of variant viruses that spring from our collective inability to achieve herd immunity is placing an inordinate pressure upon parents on how to deal with in-person education. These sorts of painstaking decisions are tossing parents into the political fray of who is best to make potentially deadly decisions with their children essentially human guinea pigs in an uncertain and evolving dilemma that is spawned by the lack of a national uniform consensus on how to minimize such risks.
As a single father of two who are long past their school years, I simply cannot envision the level of anxiety and angst parents must be facing in light of the choices they must make while rampant politicization of a public health catastrophe exposes them to confusing mis- and disinformation as the weight of emerging scientific evidence is being completed.
A revolution of vaccine hesitant worshippers who questionably cling to the precepts of freedom and personal responsibility continues to hamstring efforts to defeat COVID. However, it seems elementary to any rational being that freedom stops where your fist meets my face, or vice-versa. There is no license that allows one individual the ability to endanger or infect other individuals based upon the notion that freedom allows them to do so. We are all in this together. Our civilized society carries with it the ability to allow each and every individual the right to conduct themselves according to the laws, rules and regulations based upon historical precedent that governs civil conduct.
We live in a society where liberty and justice for all are patterned upon the ideals developed by our founding fathers and an ever-evolving judicial system that renders our Constitution a living document. How seemingly righteous indignation emboldens fellow citizens to place others at risk based on a perverted notion of social Darwinism is simply anathema to those things we all pretend to believe and abide in. It is simply anti-democratic and un-American.
Have we become such a society where our faith and beliefs are twisted around a flagpole that carries either the black flag of piracy or the white flag of surrender? Or are we simply resigned to display the Stars and Stripes upside down, the universal signal of distress?
Luckily, we live in a state where policymakers and leaders throughout are willing to provide at least a modicum of protections that help guide the way toward a rational redress of the difficulties that endanger us all. However, the margins are thin and the fact of the matter is we are all—I mean all—in this together and we cannot build walls high enough to distance ourselves from our neighbors and fellow citizens.
It is imperative that we move forward to encourage all of our citizens to release themselves from the hold of political charlatans that would have us believe freedom comes with little or no sacrifice. There is no place upon this Earth where such a place exists. Is it ideal that our children practice mask wearing and social distancing in the classroom? No, but it certainly will educate them and imbue them with the notion that problem solving starts with identifying the problem. The desire to return to a life of apparent normalcy does not come without sacrifices. It’s a temporary inconvenience, yes, but one that will serve to reinforce our will to confront problems and prepare for the next disaster.
None of us enjoys the restrictions and limitations that we have been forced to endure over the past year or so. However, there is a path that will help us to freedom, and it involves setting forth practices and pragmatic actions that benefit the entire population of this limited sphere we currently occupy. It is, in the long term, worth the inconvenience.
We are all in this together and the frustrations affect all of us, some worse than others. It is our responsibility to our children to show them we are willing to accept momentary inconvenience for the promise of a better day. This is the world in which we find ourselves and the resilience of working toward a better tomorrow is a lesson worth a lifetime. It is, in the long-term, worthwhile to abide by both the costs and the benefits of freedom.