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.