The subject of wearing or not wearing a mask as an issue of Freedom of Choice is the most ridiculous argument concerning freedom. Before I continue, I’ll ask some pertinent questions. Do you need a permit to drive a vehicle on governmental roads? (There are exceptions for farmers going from one field to another when a public road separates their property) Do you have the right to yell fire in a crowded theater when there is none? Do you have the right to fish or hunt without a license? (There are exceptions) Do you have the right to shoot off guns at any time in a city or town’s confines? Do you have the right to drive on toll roads without paying? Do you have the right to hitchhike on an interstate highway? Can you operate a vehicle on a public road drunk? Do you have the right to disturb neighbors with loud radios or harbor barking dogs? Can you operate or spectate chicken, dog, or other animal fights? Can you own an operable cannon? A Bazooka? Can you run naked through the streets of any community (other than a nudist colony)? Can you home-school your child without governmental approval. Can you burn down your house without permission? None of these are violations of your rights as an American citizen, they are regulatory and wearing or not wearing a mask falls into the same realm. The government (which is a composite of its citizens) says, “You have to wear a mask in certain situations and locations.” Is that then a violation of your rights? It is not at all. No one has the right to harm anyone knowingly or in this case unknowingly.
I can go on, but I am making my point, that wearing or not wearing a mask is a privilege. If the government defines the spread of a disease as a danger to the country it can and will enforce mask-wearing. Many people are unaware that before the development of tuberculosis’ successful treatment and control, individuals who tested positive for the disease were hospitalized against their will. And stayed in the sanitariums until cured. They lost the right to live among others because they were a threat to the health and well-being of society. When I was young and came down with measles and chickenpox, the county health department confined my brother and me to our home, and county officials came to our house and posted a quarantine stamp on our front door. The number of cases never reached what we have today with the covid epidemic.
Our Florida governor, Ron De Insanitas, has created a political issue out of a health issue. What he should be saying to the citizens of Florida is, “My fellow Floridians, we are faced with an insidious enemy called covid 19, or more specifically the Delta variant. The problem is we can’t see, smell, or hear it. While it is here and spreading like wildfire if we don’t get it under control sickness and death rates will be unmaintainable. We are averaging 248 deaths a day, and 23,000 cases a week. Our total case figure to date is 3.04 million and counting. 42, 252 deaths have occurred. We have a controversy about children wearing masks to school, which I created, and I was wrong. No parent has the right to send their child to school unprotected from an insidious killer or to infect other children. Unfortunately, we now lead the country in hospitalized children with Covid-19. Consequently, we need to follow all CDC recommendations. The loss of one child is too much. We know masks, cleaning our hands and things we might touch, and maintaining social distancing all work since the common cold has almost disappeared. Be a responsible Floridian and wear a mask. They work, the common cold, a virus, decreased significantly last year but is having a come-back since there is less mask-wearing. If wearing a mask, washing hands, and social distancing serve to avoid the common cold, it will then work with Covid-19 and its variants. A virus is a virus.” (See: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03519-3.
Rather than admitting he was wrong he is now trying to distract with the monoclonal antibody therapy. This is a good therapy, but it is a therapy not a prevention and is for those who tested positive and had symptoms for ten days or less and/or a person who is at high risk, such as the elderly, asthmatics, and others. Consequently, the best thing for anybody to do is get vaccinated, wear a mask when around others, wash the hands frequently, and practice social distance.
I heard parents making presentations before school boards arguing that they have the right to decide whether their child has to wear a mask. The school boards are giving them the opportunity to exercise, not a right, but the privilege to choose whether their child can wear a mask or not, and that choice must be based on specific medical reasons. I want to make it clear that when one has a child, the parent(s) does (do) not own that child. They have the duty to see to the health and welfare of the child. Failure to do so can and does lead to the State removing that child from parental care. No child belongs to anybody, he or she belongs to the State who is allowing parents to care for the child.
The school is an arm of the State and has the duty to see to the health and welfare of children from the moment the child boards a school bus or enters the grounds of the school’s confines. The school board decides the safety measures to employ in securing the health and welfare of the student, not the governor. In order for a governor of any state to interfere in the operations of any agency concerned with the health and welfare of any child would in my view have to have a Doctorate Degree in Sciences, in Education, in Human Health, in Child Psychology, in Child Development, in Family Health…. We see that one cannot achieve such a level of expertise so we have different branches of government saddled with different responsibilities to serve the public with expertise in their area of concern.
I recently read an editorial by a local pastor, R. L. Gundy, in our newspaper and he made an excellent point in his discourse on Love Thy Neighbor and I feel it imperative I share. It is a political address,” We must remember to ‘love they neighbor as thyself’, not ‘love thy party.’ And believe me I know and listened to politician party members who love their right or wrong party at all costs.
I suggest for further clarification the perusal of page 28 section C. Isolation of Patients Who Do Not Adhere to Treatment of CDC Tuberculosis Control Laws and Policies, A Handbook for Public Health and Legal Practitioners. https://www.cdc.gov/tb/programs/tblawpolicyhandbook.pdf.
Eclecticwriter 