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The relative merits of safety versus freedom

| April 9, 2020 1:00 AM

COVID-19 and the corresponding government response to it have initiated some important discussions for our community regarding the relative merits of our safety versus freedom.

With this in mind, here are a few questions I suggest we wrestle with:

1. Even if all the restrictions imposed during this crisis end up being legitimately helpful, what safeguards are in place to protect against a future government pulling these same levers to take control away from the American people corruptly?

2. How can we protect the most vulnerable among us without absolute government control?

3. 80,000 people died during the 2017-18 flu season. Were the people then who continued their normal daily lives murderers?

4. Is it appropriate to threaten to withhold ventilators from people who disagree with us?

5. Do first amendment rights apply to our elected officials?

6. Can we avoid both illness and economic devastation?

7. Does Benjamin Franklin’s “Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,” apply to this?

8. Can we have this discussion without hating people who disagree with our answers to these questions?

Although not a question for general discussion, I am personally curious about the following.

Bonus question: How is it that some of the same people who told us that Trump is “worse than Hitler,” are now encouraging us to surrender all of our constitutional freedoms to him and grant his administration unprecedented control over our lives?

CYNTHIA DILTS

Sagle