I will never understand what goes through (or does not go through) the quarantine protestors’ minds. I pity them because Coronavirus has a lethality for which nobody alive has currently seen. The last pandemic with this level of danger was the so-called Spanish Flu of 1918. COVID19 is neither hoax nor joke and those that contract it, go through an unimaginable abject misery if the virus does not kill them outright. The level of ignorance on the part of the protestors is frightening.
The quarantine has been put in place to save lives by attempting to thwart the spread of the virus. State and Federal government is not trying to limit anybody’s freedom for tyrannical reasons but for the safety of everybody. There is nothing nefarious behind protecting human lives from the untold suffering that this virus has already visited upon people. It is not a bioweapon engineered by the Chinese for wrecking havoc upon America. The reason COVID19 has spread like wildfire is the incompetence of both the Chinese and American governments. Both bare equal blame.
By reopening the country prematurely, we risk giving even more of an upper hand to COVID19. Consider for a moment that the protestors are even being selfish. They feel that their freedoms trump everyone else’s safety. The protestors do not have a right to sacrifice our safety for their perception of civil liberties. And to enter into a state government building armed is incredibly irresponsible as it is inviting unrest and conflict in a time when we need to be working together and cooperating.
We should be placing pressure on the federal government to create a universal basic income for everyone. We should be putting pressure on government for a guaranteed, single payer healthcare system and not fighting amongst ourselves. When we fight amongst ourselves, the billionaire class wins. The protestors, ironically, are helping distract from real and palpable class divisions. Freedom is more than just economic. It’s about having a strong social safety net.