Kerry McDonald said it accurately: “When we get to the point where individuals find it ‘natural’ for the government to tell us how to take turns eating our Thanksgiving turkey, a pandemic is the least of our concerns.”
Indeed, the lunacy is so pervasive that one must wonder how much sanity remains in the general population. The land of the free and home of the brave has turned into the land of the fearfully obedient.
McDonald was writing for the Foundation for Economic Education. Her brief essay — Absurd Thanksgiving Guidelines Reveal an Astonishing Level of Government Overreach, found here < https://fee.org/articles/absurd-thanksgiving-guidelines-reveal-an-astonishing-level-of-government-overreach/?utm_source=zapier > — gives several examples of the overreach, including California’s stay at home order and curfew, prohibiting more than two households getting together for the traditional holiday dinner (and mentioning the governor’s hypocrisy of going out to dinner with 12 people while he had ordered such activity to n more than 10 people).
She mentioned the order from the governor of Vermont prohibiting people from gathering with those outside their household until mid-December. But he amended that order to allow residents to go for socially-distanced walks with one person from outside the household.
After referencing a New York Times article that gave statistics showing social gatherings account for only a small fraction of increases in COVID cases, she referenced Cambridge, Mass. There, residents were told not to talk without wearing masks and to “take turns eating or drinking so that two people are not simultaneously unmasked.”
It becomes deeply telling when McDonald links to a Boston Globe article mentioning a 32-year-old Cambridge resident who said it’s “natural” for people to follow a government’s lead. Doing otherwise “puts more undue burden on the individual’ to determine what is safe,” the person is quoted as saying.
Yes, a 32-year-old said being responsible for one’s actions about his or her health is an “undue burden.” We have seen this attitude right here in Chester County, where people have commonly posted approval for local authorities making decisions that belong to the individual. By encouraging local supervisors and mayors to commit clear violations of the Pennsylvania constitution, we are setting ourselves up for a future of constant erosion of freedom.
Yes, a pandemic involving a virus is a serious thing, but a pandemic of government overreach is worse. Worse yet, is the fact that so many people will acquiesce to the ludicrous prattling of politicians who have no idea what they’re talking about