First, I want to thank everyone who wrote about my previous blog (The Masks We Wear). I apologize I can't respond to everyone individually - there were just TOO MANY replies! It was not my intention to stir up a hornet's nest or make people angry. I was expressing the facts as I understood them and my own personal philosophy.
Many - perhaps even MOST - of the replies were, more or less, that it was rude of me to NOT wear a mask (with various and differing levels of indignation, righteous anger and so forth). The name-calling was a bit much (you know who you are) but I get that this topic is highly galvanizing.
As I wrote in one of my few individual replies, I'm not against masks. I wear them, even when I don't have to, because it erroneously makes me feel safe. I am against the affront to our civil liberties that the mask mandates (and quarantining) make.
The science supports masks help stop infected people from infecting others. The science supports that you can be symptom-free and still be infected. The part of this thing I have a problem with is the disregard for the rights of healthy people. Mask mandates weren't directed at people who have the virus. Quarantining wasn't directed at people who have the virus. It was applied to everyone indiscriminately - thus abridging our individual rights. If the focus had been on testing and then applying distancing and mask mandates against the infected, I would have no issue - philosophically or morally - with it.
A right, once given up, will never be returned - no matter which political party is in power. The government now knows it can force us to wear whatever it wants for the common good. It will be used again - and against us. Maybe not immediately - but it will. There is now precedent.
The plan to force us to be vaccinated, if enacted, will further erode our personal liberties. Once this is done, the government will have developed the right to make medical decisions for us. It is a right they will not give up. It will be used again - and against us. Maybe not immediately - but it will. We just don't know how far it will go.