Freedom isn’t free
Freedom comes with responsibility. Otherwise, we have anarchy.
There are certain obligations and responsibilities that attach to United States citizenship. One is to vote, to participate in the actuation of democracy. Another is to be a juror in criminal cases where defendants have a right to a jury. Jury service is another actuation of democracy. And another very important duty is to be a team player when it comes to public health.
Freedom is not free. Many lives have been sacrificed to preserve our freedom. In turn, citizens have a responsibility to work on preserving our democracy and our freedoms, which require an amount of sacrifice, cooperation, and a sense of duty.
Sunday’s paper has a picture of a little boy with the sign: “Freedom, not fear.” How are freedom and fear even connected? It certainly is not one or the other. Are his parents going to teach him someday about the requirements of being a good citizen? About the duties he has as a free person in America? About the many people who have died protecting his “freedom.”
You are not free to infect other citizens with the diseases you carry. Since childhood, we all have been subjected to vaccines mandated by the government, by schools and by other institutions. It’s not a new, scary idea. It’s common sense with a firm basis in scientific advancement.
All I have to “fear” are the uneducated people who somehow reject the 10,000 years of accumulated knowledge that comprise our scientific basis today. So, in this new surge of COVID, while I may be vaccinated, I am back to double-masking, sanitizing and keeping my distance whenever humans are nearby. I’m never sure who is a real patriot and who is a complete freedom kind of anarchist, without even knowing it.
Teach your children the wonder and power of a great democracy where everyone does their part to keep it rolling on.
Frank Miller
Captain Cook
^
Citizens should come first
How is it possible for a president of the United States to have so little regard for his people that he allows thousands of illegal people into our country? It was an awful travesty when they were not all sick with COVID. But now, these sick people are being sent all over the country, into hotels, cafes and health care facilities.
United States citizens come before any other people, even children. If many of ones neighbors were producing a child every year and then when it could walk, send it over to you to be fed, clothed and health care, it wouldn’t be long before you would decide that it was impossible to care for the neighborhood children and your children, too.
Sandra Gray
Kapaau
^
Letters policy
Letters to the editor should be 300 words or less and will be edited for style and grammar. Longer viewpoint guest columns may not exceed 800 words. Submit online at www.westhawaiitoday.com/?p=118321, via email to letters@westhawaiitoday.com or address them to:
Editor
West Hawaii Today
PO Box 789
Kailua-Kona, HI 96745