Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety.
Benjamin Franklin
As we confront both the dawn of a new year and the impending wave of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, I wanted to relay a few random thoughts. The Patriot Act of 2001 denied Americans rights by allowing law enforcement to search property and records without a warrant, consent or knowledge. Despite an IG report detailing over a 100 violations of the Patriot Act including against political adversaries and the “War on terrorism” being effectively over, the Patriot Act remains in effect 20 years later. In the name of safety during a worldwide pandemic in 2021, the U.S. has denied American citizens constitutionally enumerated freedoms, including:
- Stay at home quarantine orders have limited freedom of movement and freedom of commerce. These orders may have been helpful in reducing the spread of Covid-19 and more importantly (to me) have had definitive end dates.
- Mask mandates. The de-facto norm of cotton masks have moderate to nominal filtering ability of the Covid-19 virus. I find the whole insistent and continual mask discussion a political tool of distraction and a placebo to placate people that feel they have no control over their health. We know that body fat and health are significant risk factors. I wish we spent more time encouraging people to lose weight. If you are overweight, please make a New Year’s resolution to lose 10 pounds and when you lose that try to lose another 10 pounds if you need to. Are you out of shape? Are you winded by climbing a flight of stairs or even getting dressed? If yes, please consider increasing your exercise to increase lung and heart capacity. Improve things you can control to improve your overall health and stop stressing over things we can not control.
- Freedom of speech and freedom of the press have been attacked under the guise of “misinformation”. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook have somehow been redefined from the sharing of personal opinions to somehow requiring to be factual in nature. And they are being censored.
- Perhaps most troubling, there is now an expectation and requirement of personal medical information to be shared to go many places outside the home. We are now at a stage where officials can stop you and demand “your papers please.” This is reminiscent of most if not all dictatorial or communist regimes.
As many Americans prepare to celebrate 2021 New Year”s Eve in a public event, they will likely be asked “Papers please” before being allowed to enter. Unlike the Patriot Act of 2001, I hope we demand the freedoms denied us in 2021 are returned to us the people as quickly as possible. Otherwise, like the 20 years of the Patriot Act, you may still have to produce medical papers upon demand before entering a 2041 New Years Eve party.
Random Thoughts 