Sic Semper Tyrannis

          Sic semper tyrannis (thus always to tyrants) is said to have been uttered by Brutus as he stabbed Julius Caesar. The phrase was also used by John Wilkes Booth after shooting Abraham Lincoln.

            We have many tyrants these days operating out of state houses and mayoral mansions. I’m not suggesting we assassinate them, but I am saying it is time for them to recognize that the tyranny they exercise is doing irreparable harm to this country, while oppressing the very citizens they were elected to serve.

            When Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti extended his stay-at-home order indefinitely, he said it was to save lives. He added he was guided by science and nothing else. This sanctimonious idiot certainly was not guided by common sense.

            When mayor Bill De Blasio told the citizens of New York City that he would send NYPD officers to haul swimmers out of the water, he said it was to protect them. How stupid is that? After pointing out that his city will remain shut down, he claimed that “things are going well.”

            Really, Mr. Mayor? Try telling that to the man who invested his life savings in a taxicab that now sits in his driveway. Try telling that to the owner of the little restaurant on the West Side who no longer sees the clients who enjoyed his French cuisine before going to the theater and then stayed overnight in a hotel down the street. Idled cabs, shuttered restaurants, darkened theaters, empty hotel rooms—is this what you mean by things going well, Mr. Mayor? Are you actually pleased that your orders are destroying your city? Are you smiling and waving goodbye at all the thousands of people who are leaving New York, never to return?

            There are many other government tyrants issuing silly and arbitrary orders. Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer says you can take your boat out on the water, but you can’t take passengers with you. New Jersey’s Phil Murphy says you can play tennis, but not doubles. California Governor Gavin Newsom agrees with Garcetti that you can go to the beach to surf and swim, but you can’t picnic or sunbathe on dry sand. The list of idiotic orders is very long. What they all have in common is the utter lack of common sense. Drunk with power, these officials are impervious to ridicule.

            Reality is stark: businesses big and small are declaring bankruptcy, with Hertz, J.C. Penney, and JCrew only the latest in a long line of familiar names; shops are closing their doors permanently, with millions of jobs gone forever. We now have over 20 million people on unemployment, with poor chances of ever being rehired.

            Our leaders are willfully blind to the misery they are causing in their zeal to save lives. They cannot see the price people will pay in poverty, malnutrition, depression, and despair. We are already seeing increases in suicides, opioid abuse, domestic violence, crime. Why can’t the tyrants see this?

            C.S. Lewis saw the problem very clearly: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive….those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end if they do so with approval of their own conscience.”

            Many, including me, are predicting that history will look upon the Great Lockdown as the worst mistake this country has ever made.

Tyranny

          Semper tyrannis (thus always to tyrants) is said to have been uttered by Brutus as he stabbed Julius Caesar. The phrase was also used by John Wilkes Booth after shooting Abraham Lincoln.

            We have many tyrants these days operating out of state houses and mayoral mansions. I’m not suggesting we assassinate them, but I am saying it’s time for them to recognize that the tyranny they exercise is doing irreparable harm to this country, while oppressing the very citizens they were elected to serve.

            When Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti extended his stay-at-home order indefinitely, he said it was to save lives. He added he was guided by science and nothing else. This sanctimonious idiot certainly was not guided by common sense.

            When mayor Bill De Blasio told the citizens of New York City that he would send NYPD officers to haul swimmers out of the water, he said it was to protect them. How stupid is that? After pointing out that his city will remain shut down, he claimed that “things are going well.” This tyrant is actually pleased that his orders are destroying his city. How many taxicabs will return to his streets after this is over? How many restaurants will reopen their doors? How many New Yorkers will move away and never look back?

            There are many other government tyrants issuing silly and arbitrary orders. Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer (only one person per boat), New Jersey’s Phil Murphy (singles but not doubles in tennis), California’s Gavin Newsome (no sunbathing on LA beaches). The list is very long. What they all have in common is the utter lack of common sense. Drunk with power and impervious to ridicule; they are willfully blind to the misery they are causing in their zeal to save lives.

            Reality is stark: businesses big and small declaring bankruptcy, with Hertz, J.C. Penney, and JCrew only the latest in a long line of familiar names; shops closing their doors forever, with millions of jobs gone forever. Over 20 million on unemployment, with little chance of ever being rehired.

            The people will pay the price in misery, poverty, malnutrition, despair. We are already seeing increases in suicides, opioid abuse, domestic violence, crime. Do the tyrants not see this? Are they totally blind to the consequences of their actions?                   

            C.S. Lewis saw the problem very clearly: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive….those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end if they do so with approval of their own conscience.”

            Many, including me, are predicting that history will look upon the Great Lockdown as the greatest mistake this country has ever made.

Individual Responsibility

  

            How many of our leaders have expressed the hope that we can soon return to normal. I guess normal means kids back in school, workers off unemployment, spectators back in the stands, and our economy roaring again. But that’s not going to happen until and unless we have a major change of attitude among these same leaders.

            It’s interesting to note how the authorities of various countries around the world reacted to the pandemic, once they realized it was a highly infectious killer. In China, the Chinese Communist Party surrounded Wuhan with troops, creating a prison of 11 million people. In Italy and Spain, the leaders were caught flat-footed and didn’t have time to mount a defense. Others like in South Korea and Sweden came up with effective strategies to keep their economies buzzing while mitigating the spread of the disease. Sadly, some ignored the threat entirely and are now paying a horrible price.

            What did we do here in the U.S.? President Trump was wise to stop people from coming in from China, even before the first confirmed infection in this country. Anthony Fauci said not to worry, Covid-19 would be no worse than the common flu. But both Trump and Fauci didn’t realize that the virus was invading our shores from Europe. When tens of thousands of infected victims checked into New York hospitals and threatened to overwhelm the city’s health system, our leaders panicked. They shut the country down.

            The president and the governors who locked down their states claimed the authority to override the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They were well intentioned: they wanted to save lives. But in exercising the power of a dictatorship in their respective fiefdoms, they forgot one very important fact: their power, as spelled out in the Constitution, is limited by the rights granted to the people.  They forgot that any power they have was granted to them by the people whose rights they now trampled.

            Americans understand that the government has extraordinary authority to curtail dangerous activities during emergencies. Most people willingly cooperate with authorities, because they recognize that their orders are meant to save lives. The key here is that they would do it willingly: they don’t have to be ordered to do it.

            However, when they sense that their constitutionally protected rights are being denied, they react, they speak up, they protest, and disobey orders. They open salons and bars, they fill their churches, they take to their beaches. They claim their right to work, to worship, to assemble. They give the proverbial finger to authorities who threaten to arrest, prosecute, and jail them.

            I say bravo to them. I say bravo to the Wisconsin Supreme Court that has lifted all restrictions on businesses and gatherings imposed by the state’s governor. It’s about time a court has curbed the government’s power to act unilaterally to deny the people’s most cherished rights. Freedom. It’s what makes this country the greatest nation in the world.

            Will this country ever get back to normal? Perhaps. But only when individuals have the freedom once again to make their own decisions on how they want to live their lives.  Will there be risks? Sure. But we’ve learned an awful lot about how to act responsibly to mitigate that risk.

            We’ll know we’re on the right track when we are allowed to decide for ourselves whether or not to go to a concert or sit in the stands to see a football game. Sooner than later, I hope.

             

           

A Massive Mistake?

          I’ve never known a time when I’ve felt so overwhelmed by the news. There are so many “just in” bombshell stories, it’s difficult to focus on one without feeling you’ve missed something important somewhere else.

          For conspiracy fanatics, there’s the Michael Flynn case’s dismissal by Attorney General William Barr who saw Flynn’s set-up not only as a gross abuse of power by the FBI, but also as clear evidence that the Deep State was attempting a coup against President Trump.

          On the related Russia collusion hoax, there’s the call for Chairman Schiff to resign his chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee after documents he refused to release for over a year now show that he was lying all along about having solid, tangible evidence of President Trump’s complicity.

          And for those who enjoy seeing Joe Biden squirm, there’s the glee at yet another witness coming forward to corroborate Tara Read’s story of sexual assault by the Democratic presidential candidate.

          Yet, all these stories must take a back seat to the on-going saga of the war against Covid-19. This war is being directed by a civilian chief executive who never went to a war college, while he surrounds himself with advisers who have been in previous conflicts, but never one of this magnitude.

          The war on the ground is being fought by 50 generals on vastly different terrain. Like the Union generals in the Civil War, a few are brilliant, some are mediocre, and too many are downright incompetent, most of whom are arrogant fools infatuated with the power of their office; they issue edicts that not only violate the supreme law of the land, they traduce critics even to the point of imprisonment.

          Meanwhile, those who are ultimately responsible for managing this conflict have been making decisions based on an inchoate science handicapped by faulty field intelligence. They are torn between two seemingly irreconcilable strategies: one that favors the health of our citizens versus one that wants to save the economy from ruin.

          The very natural human tendency is to preserve as many lives as possible even if we have to sacrifice the wellbeing of the economy while hoping that the damage is not permanent. But that may in the long run prove to be a massive mistake, a mistake committed not only by the United States, but by countries around the world that take their lead from us.

          Covid-19 is very contagious, but so is panic and hysteria. The United States has a better chance of surviving the effects of a total lockdown than a country that lacks the wealth and resources to prevent a plunge into extreme poverty and starvation.

          We need to reassess the effects of the lockdown, because the ultimate outcome of this strategy, if prolonged beyond reason, could be catastrophic. Or, to put it in grim terms, more people will die from the economic impact of the virus than from the virus itself.

         

         

A Higher Authority

            When inaugurated, every state governor pledged to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Almost every one of them has failed to some degree to do so in confronting the coronavirus. Some outrageously so.

            The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, states clearly and unequivocally what rights we enjoy as a free people. The first and most important amendment couldn’t be clearer. It protects the free exercise of religion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right peaceably to assemble, and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Every one of these rights has been violated during the pandemic.

            Here are just a few examples. People have been barred from going to church or even listening to ceremonies from parked cars; opinions critical of government lockdown orders have been purged from YouTube and Facebook; people have been banned from beaches and parks; protests at state capitals have incurred retaliatory measures; petitions have been summarily rejected.

            Then there’s the Fourth Amendment, which protects the people against unreasonable searches and seizures. How is New York Mayor Bill de Blazio upholding his oath of office when he tells citizens to spy on each other and report violations of his orders? How is it constitutionally permissible for authorities in Elizabeth City, New Jersey, to use a drone to monitor people self-distancing in public places and scorn them if they don’t?

            What’s next? Kites with cameras? Telescopes with facial recognition and thermal imaging? Drones that recognize if people are coughing? And here we thought that only the Chinese spied on their own people.

            When Tucker Carlson of Fox News asked New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy under what authority he had the right to overrule the Constitution, the governor sheepishly replied, “The answer to that question is above my pay grade.” That dodge, if we think about it, has some truth to it. Governors who issue edicts and mandates that violate people’s rights are asserting that they do not answer to a higher authority, even when there indeed is one—the Constitution of the United States. And when they do, they are breaking the law.

            People all over the country are fed up with prolonged lockdowns, enforced closures against stores and restaurants, and all sorts of prohibitions against small businesses. We have already seen rebellious shops forcibly closed, licenses revoked, owners cited and fined. What’s next?  Imprisonment? Internment camps?

            This country was born in revolt against an authoritarian monarchy. Do we need a revolution against our own authoritarian government to restore our freedoms? Our Founders stood shoulder to shoulder in their fight against tyranny. Should we summon their spirits to return to fight again?

Close to Home

            Over 65,000 deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus and mounting.  Nameless and faceless people until one of them is a relative or a friend. For me, that barrier of anonymity was crossed last week.

            Claire Quintal died from the virus on April 29, only days after turning 90. She is mourned all over New England by people of French-Canadian ancestry like me who admired her for her selfless dedication to a cause, the Franco-American heritage.

            I can relate to Claire. She was born and raised only a few miles down the road from my hometown, and her childhood education was similar to mine. She was a brilliant scholar with many advanced degrees. The ten years she spent in Paris from 1958 to 1968 earning her doctorate and teaching bracketed my years of study in Europe. Who knows? I may even have passed her on the street on one of my frequent visits to Paris.

            Faced with a choice between marriage and a career, she chose the latter. And for over 40 years her dedication to her mission never wavered, highlighted by the founding of the French Institute in Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

            I met Claire Quintal when she invited me to speak at a colloquim at the Institute in 1994 and got to appreciate first-hand her dynamic leadership in the preservation of the culture, values, and history of the million Canadian immigrants who settled in New England towns between roughly 1840 and 1940.

            I could go on about Claire Quintal, but my point here is that the virus becomes personal when it takes the life of someone you know. Worse, I’m sure, when it’s someone in your family. In fact, there are no nameless and faceless victims, because they all had families, friends, or at the very least, people who knew them. While the numbers may seem overwhelming, each death is personal to someone.