Updated: 7 hours ago Posted: 7 hours ago

We have just spent days remembering the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Firefighters and other first responders knew that not only is freedom not free, but sometimes life itself is not free. Just three decades ago, convinced that the spread of communism could cost us our freedom, we spent the lives of tens of thousands of mostly young men, many of whom served unwittingly, to stop the advance of an atheist and authoritarian threat in Vietnam.

We know that some things are not free and force us to do things that we would not otherwise choose. So why the cry of “You are trampling on my American ideals of freedom” if we have to get vaccinated or wear a mask? Fighting the threat of “communism” to maintain “freedom” calls us to recognize rather nebulous terms. Is there something we don’t understand about death, forcing companies to cut spending, when we’re called upon to hide and get vaccinated against COVID?

The rabid reaction of some to the threat of excessive government intervention is mind-boggling when compared to the benefits of keeping the business going and keeping people away from hospitals. If nothing else means nothing, there are real and overwhelming economic costs to pursuing the viral threat caused by what some call protecting their freedom.

The numbers of hospitals and morgues are not invented. At least one of our available vaccines is now fully FDA approved, as if millions of takers when cleared for emergency use weren’t convincing enough. How is it that the facts that each of us could verify about the number of cases and the overwhelming effectiveness and safety of vaccines are not convincing, when some clowns on the internet or on television convince us otherwise?

Pay close attention to your own motivation in choosing what you believe and who you listen to. My God, it seems there are so many spoiled people out there living in a world of their own. “I don’t like masks and I don’t like needles and Biden is a Democrat,” so the tens of thousands of military personnel and women who put their whole lives on the line make sense, but wearing a mask and getting vaccinated is too much of a sacrifice?

Yes, we cherish freedom. Use it to make the choice to help everyone get through this. It may even be patriotic.

– Jim Durand

Anchoring

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