If a year of following the COVID science hasn’t given you a bit of pause about the science driving climate change and other controversial issues, you must be blessed. Watching national, state and local health officials flail away at science over the last year has made me question a lot of government-driven efforts to “protect people and the planet.”
COVID is real, Climate Change is real, terrorism is real, but our government has manipulated each of them against us and it looks like it will continue. This is not Republican or Democrat issue or some far reaching conspiracy. It is a state of mind that has permeated government types and become a normalized thought process for elected, appointed and the citizenry in general.
When terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center, the government used it to strip away many of our freedoms. Much of it around travel. You feel safer now that the government makes you take your belt off before getting on a plane to Vegas? Of course not, but that is one of the many things that grew out of the assault on our freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism. On a larger scale, wiretapping private citizens and secret courts were also part of the government response that continue today, all in the name of your “safety.” Feel safer?
Fast forward to COVID and the explosion of national, state and local orders in the name of “health” have extended beyond comprehension. Now you must wear a mask, take off your belt and remove your shoes to get on a plane to go to Vegas, not to mention you may have to wear a mask at the store that you buy your belt or shoes. You think that is ending? Of course, it is not. You feel healthier yet?
Can’t you imagine government saying you can only drive on certain roads at certain times in electric cars, no gas-powered cars? All in the name of reducing our carbon footprint to “save the World.” How would that be different than masks or business hours but now in the name of our planetary health?
We have opened the proverbial barn door and I’m not sure you can get the horses back in the barn.
Have we flattened the curve yet?
With all that being said. There was much post pandemic celebration happening this past weekend. For the first time in a year, I took in rural Platte County Jowler Creek and was able to order beers and go to the bathroom without a mask on. It was glorious. One of my friends said he went to the Stroud’s and celebrated with a “Choke the Chicken” drink that is apparently a drink shared by an entire table. Dr. Fauci would not approve.
Bars were full, shopping centers were filling and even movie theaters were starting to happen. The Chiefs announced they will be full capacity this year and we still have Patrick Mahomes. Let’s all socially distant exhale and take this in.
Some people are calling for vaccine passports. Not me. I’m calling for a cough code of conduct. For fairness’s sake, we should come up with some unwritten rules. For example, if you are waiting to ride a roller coaster at Worlds of Fun and you get choked up with a cough, you can leave the line and sprint to the nearest open space and cough like crazy. The person behind you would be responsible to hold your spot and we will forever be a non-judgment cough country.
If you have a coughing fit at work, leave, for the day. Really, just leave. Nobody wants whatever you got and we are going to run this on the honor system, kind of like sexually transmitted diseases. Let’s assume every cough is COVID but follow the unwritten code of courtesy.
Those are simple rules, we can all live by those, can’t we? No need for another app on our phones, lets just wing these unwritten rules until some buffoon decides to write them down.
(Guy Speckman can be reached at gspeckman@me.com <mailto:gspeckman@me.com> or writing down unwritten rules)