Opinion: Pandemic politics is putting freedom on the front lines

You know government is out of control when different entities start talking about suing each other over the best way to control people.

Freedom lovers are outraged, for example, over the latest COVID-19 vaccine mandates announced by President Biden last week.

Biden declared that businesses with 100 or more employees will have to require workers to be vaccinated. Employees who decline the vaccine will have to be tested at least weekly for COVID-19.

Texas Republicans immediately urged Attorney General Ken Paxton to file a lawsuit in hopes of blocking the White House mandate as unconstitutional. And Texas Gov. Greg Abbott labeled Biden’s plan “an assault on private business.”

Abbott’s words are confusing because, in June, he signed into law legislation that prohibited Texas business owners from requiring customers to show proof of vaccination.

First he says private business owners have to follow government’s mandates. Then he says it’s “an assault on private business” when mandates are issued by the government.

Most of us are in a COVID fog these days, even if we’ve not contracted the potentially deadly virus.

We all have an opinion on whether these vaccines are effective and what long-term side effects, if any, we might see from them.

We should not be debating whether government should decide if we get one or not, and we should not be debating whether private business owners should decide the best way to operate their business.

Of course government entities can require government employees to do just about anything. Don’t like it? Don’t work there.

That same standard should apply to private business. Don’t like the boss requiring you to get a shot? Don’t work there. Don’t like Widget City requiring proof of vaccination to shop there? Don’t shop there.

Those decisions should rest with the business owners who have their livelihoods to lose in this pandemic. Those decisions can mean financial boon or bust and they’re risky no matter what.

At the same time, each individual should have the right to choose whether they get vaccinated. That decision, too, has consequences. Like maybe losing a job or a favorite place to purchase widgets.

The Centers for Disease Control last week reported unvaccinated people were 10 times more likely to be hospitalized by COVID-19 and 11 times more likely to die of the virus than those who’ve been vaccinated.

Biden said last week that “These pandemic politics … are making people sick, causing unvaccinated people to die.”

But then “my body, my choice” is also a compelling argument, even when that’s followed by concerns about DNA alterations engineered by Satan. To each their own.

Those debates rage on. Here’s something we should all agree on:

Our freedom is at stake anytime government says you have to do something. And our freedom is at stake anytime government says you can’t do something.

In summary, for anything that involves government, your freedom is at stake.

— David Stevens

Publisher