Opinion column by Richard McGee
My Dear Government Officials (and fellow citizens, to whom it applies):
As I move through this new normal and strive to maintain mental stability from one hour to the next, I keep remembering the common words of many kinds of people: “…we will get through this.” No doubt you have seen how protestors across the country don’t line up with that view. Regularly I endeavor to show understanding to both sides of an issue, and I know that a number of you are trying to use necessary caution to fight against this latest infection; here, however, on behalf of you who are of genuine goodwill, I want to try to answer in (peaceful) resistance to your ordinances and your decisions, in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states: I must not idly watch from Mississippi what happens in New York or California. States like these have governors who stout-heartedly proclaim the war-cry against COVID-19, while it becomes more and more apparent that what they want is a socialistic form of government. If that goal is realized, then it will mean countless individuals continuing to stay home because they like getting “paid” to stay home, even though they are able to work; and where will their government get all that money? Ultimately from those of us who are made to give it up. Hard-earned money goes to the ones who don’t work. The new system is glorified in the name of “grandma’s health and safety”. This will eventually get back to the other states, if we intend to conduct business with each other. I wish I could say that in time (not that I am willing to simply wait) our experts and leaders will look back on this and see how such drastic changes in reaction to something less invasive than H1N1 were so unnecessary, but I am smart enough to know that too many of you will see all of it as the price that had to be paid, and still others of you who cared only to use this difficult time to further your favorite agendas. Maybe there’s a third reason: that the destruction of the world and local economy will not in any way affect you, so why bother with it, when you can focus on the Corona Virus itself?
You discourage the protests although you respect them. You must remember that they are not without merit. These people, like myself, are looking down the two barrels of Tyranny and The Great Depression Rides Again. Does the Constitution allow for such strenuous “laws” to be passed when the majority of Americans do not even have the dreaded symptoms? (Certainly the majority do not have confirmed cases) Why is it that our city and state officials take such desperate measures on us, unless it were to have greater control? And what of the masks? What good does covering the face actually do? I digress. Would those of you who are truly against tyranny please take your gaze off of a hyped-up virus, and start to give more thought to what a mass house arrest is already doing to our nation.
We are told again and again that if we truly love the vulnerable, the sickly and elderly, we will faithfully remain “quarantined” because that alone is what will save them. In the years to come, I would like to have the means to care for my elderly relatives and anyone else who requires expensive medical attention. Can you imagine how unsustainable the American life could get if we were to keep trumping up the sense of fear in our citizens, telling them, You have to stay home or you will die? Follow my interpretation of the rules or I will arrest you? In a way it is already unsustainable; people who filed for unemployment have gotten their checks and they will be told to stay home—or they will decide they would rather stay unemployed, since they are now getting paid more than when they were working… And where, I ask you, will they be getting that money, ultimately?
I wish I could say that I am immune to such a temptation, but I can sometimes feel its power work in me. I wish I could say that no churches have wrongfully taken advantage of the CARES Act, but I have indeed heard of one, at least, without a true need for it, putting the vote up for whether to accept the money. Does this present itself as at least one clear reason to avoid restrictions? Not that state restrictions are the cause of Washington’s monetary machinations, but if you see how they’re connected, you see that it all goes back to the “media” using selective information to scare as many people as they can.
Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of poverty to say, [Wait: keep doing what you’re told, and things will eventually get better.] No, I have never been through abject poverty, but now I see it just on the horizon; why? because I have seen the numbers, looked at facts, heard analytical observations, thus concluding, after enough time to reach a conclusion, that the measures taken against something less destructive than car wrecks and suicide will lead so many innocent lives into what our great-grandparents endured.
How sad, also, that so much of this we have done to ourselves. Not that I did it willingly, but as a typical American I am rather compliant; I did in accordance with the emergency ordinances. As a typical American, however, I may soon grow in defiance of these pathetic rules and sad circumstance of society. How much more of our livestock do we have to waste (slaughter and discard) because butchers, processors, restaurants and grocery stores are effectively made to fear getting infections from the meat? As typical Americans, do we not have the common sense to abstain from individual purchase of certain meats if we are warned ahead of time and don’t feel safe consuming it? I’ll answer that rhetorical question: Yes, we do. After all, as many as died from the Swine Flu, it was not the end of the world, and more importantly the “media” did not share the extent of the damage, as they are doing so now, nonstop.
I have to say, though, that I expect so many of my leaders to go head-long and straight-forward into this. We are told that we’re headed out of the woods now. So what will happen when cases of COVID-19 rise again? What extreme measures will you take then? When it follows the pattern of the common Flu, and spreads more with the coming of Autumn, how many of you will double down with your not-so-constitutional regulations again? One would think that it’s enough to have the sick and the sickly stay home, but no, we had to keep masses of people home, out of work, because only THAT would do the job—as if we no longer know the meaning of Calculated Risk. I see all this as rather convenient for some of you; I have been paying attention. Why would police officers come down on a church in Greenville that was clearly following the regulations they were given, but not on shoppers at countless grocery stores? Why would you get arrested for keeping 6 feet apart outside of the abortion clinic, while the 10+ people meeting who-knows-how-closely inside the pink building are left alone? Why is open-carry banned in the city of Jackson, with the façade of safety, when we don’t know for sure that it is actually temporary?
I do not want to put blame where it is not due. I know that there are many of you who desire and try to make practical and wise decisions for your citizens; a number of you are God-fearing and live it out daily. I don’t know who you are, but you do. I do know that in the mix of all human beings in authority over me, some are malicious, some do what they think is right but with wrong intentions or bad influence, some do what ought to be done but with very little support. I did not pursue a career in speech or writing, so if I have said anything that is confusing or hard to follow, if there were typographs (which I abhor), if I overstated the truth and indicated unreasonable impatience, then please forgive me. As I said at the beginning, this is primarily for those who are of genuine goodwill and who seek to do what in future decades they would not regret. I seek the same, according to what would bring the most honor and glory to God, and so I hope that this letter reflects the best that I could possibly do in my current condition. I hope that keeping it to less than two pages was sufficient for your precious time, for even without assigned work I am constantly aware of how every moment slips permanently away, and the days never seem to stretch like we prefer.
Please remember the small business owners, the law-abiding citizens, the hard-working citizens, the bosses who sacrifice for their employees—and steer us toward caution and calculated risk. We need not go into mass house arrest again. Even if the cases and deaths go back up, so have other leading causes of death in America, most of which I have not listed here, and we did not go into lock-down for it. Remember your great-grandparents and the Great Depression. Remember the fall of the Soviet Union thanks to Communism. Remember to shop locally.
In all sincerity,
- - Richard McGee
