Freedom, consequences, and responsibility

Health and safety shouldn’t be ideological issues. When my doctor told me I had to drop weight or risk cardiovascular troubles, I didn’t call him a fascist who was trying to take away my God-given right to have Starbucks Frappuccinos and Del Taco Epic Burritos. I joined WW and went to work.

Yet, across the United States and here in my home of Orange County, California, protesters are demanding business and beaches to reopen. It’s not just because they, like everyone else, are tired of quarantines and uncertainty. They wrap their frustrations in the banner of freedom (and occasionally guns).

They forget that freedom comes with two other things, consequences and responsibility.

The coronavirus doesn’t care about your party affiliation, where you get your news, and which Facebook groups you follow. It spreads and infects. It sickens and kills the young as well as the old, the healthy as well as the sick, and the wealthy as well as the poor. Until we have treatments and vaccines, social distancing and restrictions are the best protections we have. You may say such policies infringe on your freedom. Lying in a hospital bed with an endotracheal tube shoved down your throat infringes on your freedom even more.

Freedom doesn’t protect you from consequences. If you want to join the crowd at the beach…