False Freedom

Don’t Follow False Freedom

Stay the Course

Once again Wisconsin Republicans have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by convincing their conservative friends on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to strike down Governor Tony Evers common sense, science-based approach to slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Wisconsin. More Wisconsin citizens will undoubtedly die needlessly as a result. One’s personal liberty should not be allowed to create conditions where others are more likely to become seriously ill or die.

 

Governor Evers issued a series of executive orders declaring public health emergencies in response to the spread of the virus in Wisconsin. His orders required people to wear masks in public, observe social distances between you and others whenever possible and other simple steps like washing your hands, all shown convincingly to slow the spread of the virus. These steps, coupled with a robust vaccine rollout, cut the numbers of new infections and deaths from the virus dramatically. 

 

As new virus variants have evolved from the original strains and been fueled by people and businesses which refused to follow the rules, we are starting to see new infection rates and deaths creep back up. It was in this environment, that a majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided to throw out Evers’ emergency declarations along with the mandates they imposed. This left Wisconsin citizens free to stop wearing masks, stop social distancing and enables them to ignore the science and go back to how they lived in January 2020 before COVID was recognized as the killer it turned out to be. Washington County “freedom lovers” must be thrilled. 

 

Unfortunately, this is no April Fools joke. 

 

Wisconsin Republicans, stung by the defeat of their champion, the former occupant of the White House, have doubled down on their politicization of the pandemic. Casting it in lighthearted terms and minimizing its ability to spread and kill, the GOP has used it to whip up a false frenzy over governmental overreach. Unfortunately, a majority of our Supreme Court drank that Kool Aid.

 

Some issues transcend politics. Public health and safety should be at the top of that list. They were until the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6 where white supremacist mobs battled and killed Capitol Police officers and defaced the seat of government. Now public health and safety have been relegated to the dumpster and anti-government personal liberty has become ascendant. 

 

Imagine if that had been the case when parents in the 1950s faced a polio epidemic or when earlier generations faced death at the hands of countless diseases made avoidable by new childhood vaccinations. Those generations of parents lined up, lined their children up and rolled up their collective sleeves to get the shots. There was no talk of government overreach when laws were passed to combat these plagues. People were glad to have the chance to continue living.

 

Millions in my generation, the Boomers and older, have gotten both shots. We feel like a weight has been lifted as we cautiously venture out to visit grandchildren and eat once more in safely laid out restaurants. We still wear our masks in public because we do not want to help spread the new variants, much less contract an infection from one. We still practice social distancing in stores, wash our hands and applaud those businesses which have not succumbed to the false freedom frenzy.

 

Most doctors and public health professionals supported Governor Evers’ emergency declarations and their mandates and have spoken out against the Court’s decision to trash them. Try to go into a clinic or doctor’s office without a mask. They recognize that voluntary compliance with suggestions from the Centers for Disease Control and local public health agencies has not worked, especially in counties like ours where local officials have jumped on the false freedom bandwagon with both feet. 

 

We are close to beating COVID, just like we did with polio, measles, mumps, chicken pox, and other very infectious afflictions. It is lunacy to roll back restrictions and embrace the false freedom flags when we are so close.