Fundamentally, this pandemic has devolved into a collision between rights and responsibilities.
The anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers scream that they have RIGHTS. And YES, they do.
But do they have responsibilities as well?
Well sure, but . . . well . . . we don't need to articulate those too well right now, do we? After all, weren't we talking about RIGHTS?
This kind of dance occurs in a lot of debates, and folks on both the Far Right and the Far Left are equally guilty.
People claim (sometimes simultaneously) that they have a right to guns, and a right to be free from gun violence.
People claim they have a right to shoot heroin, and a right to free drug treatment.
People claim they have a right to smoke, and a right to be free of cigarette smoke.
And now these same "rights rhetoric" people have come to the issue of public health.
What an odd thing this nation is!
It took 169 years -- from Jamestown to Philadelphia -- to develop America's greatest product, the Bill of Rights, but it seems that today Americans are discovering a new set of rights every 15 minutes.
We have grandparents rights, computer rights, and animal rights. We have the right to know the sex of a fetus, the right to own AK-47s, the right not to be tested for AIDS, the right to die, and (if we are a damaged fetus) the "right not to be born."
Airline pilots have a right not to be tested randomly for alcohol or drugs. Mentally ill persons have the right to treatment, and when they are dumped on the streets, they have the right to no treatment and, therefore, the right to die unhelped in alleys.
What too few people seem to be asking is whether a society as crowded and diverse as ours can work if every personal desire is elevated to the status of an inflexible, unyielding right?
Can America work if our defense of individual rights is unmatched by our commitment to individual and social responsibility?
And if we give a small nod to that idea, what does it really mean? How do we encourage, enable and, if need be, force the shouldering of personal responsibility?
Of course, good people will come up with different answers. Right now one side denies there is a problem — or even a virus. The other side, perhaps too easily, marches in with with authoritarian answers..
The anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers scream that they have RIGHTS. And YES, they do.
But do they have responsibilities as well?
Well sure, but . . . well . . . we don't need to articulate those too well right now, do we? After all, weren't we talking about RIGHTS?
This kind of dance occurs in a lot of debates, and folks on both the Far Right and the Far Left are equally guilty.
People claim (sometimes simultaneously) that they have a right to guns, and a right to be free from gun violence.
People claim they have a right to shoot heroin, and a right to free drug treatment.
People claim they have a right to smoke, and a right to be free of cigarette smoke.
And now these same "rights rhetoric" people have come to the issue of public health.
What an odd thing this nation is!
It took 169 years -- from Jamestown to Philadelphia -- to develop America's greatest product, the Bill of Rights, but it seems that today Americans are discovering a new set of rights every 15 minutes.
We have grandparents rights, computer rights, and animal rights. We have the right to know the sex of a fetus, the right to own AK-47s, the right not to be tested for AIDS, the right to die, and (if we are a damaged fetus) the "right not to be born."
Airline pilots have a right not to be tested randomly for alcohol or drugs. Mentally ill persons have the right to treatment, and when they are dumped on the streets, they have the right to no treatment and, therefore, the right to die unhelped in alleys.
What too few people seem to be asking is whether a society as crowded and diverse as ours can work if every personal desire is elevated to the status of an inflexible, unyielding right?
Can America work if our defense of individual rights is unmatched by our commitment to individual and social responsibility?
And if we give a small nod to that idea, what does it really mean? How do we encourage, enable and, if need be, force the shouldering of personal responsibility?
Of course, good people will come up with different answers. Right now one side denies there is a problem — or even a virus. The other side, perhaps too easily, marches in with with authoritarian answers..
But is there a Third Way? Can we encourage responsibility or mandate it? Can we enable responsibility by changing social cues keyed to employment and entertainment access? Can government send the right signals by mandating vaccines for federal, state, and local government workers, from hospitals and airports to military bases, schools, and libraries?
If I cannot walk into the grocery store with my pet dog, or sit in a restaurant without shoes or shirt, or smoke on an airplane, why is the obvious public health consequences of non-vaccination and non-masking any different?
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