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.