Life, Liberty, and Protests

The COVID-19 pandemic and attempts by the federal and state governments to limit its spread and destruction have come under more scrutiny as we head into eight weeks of some sort of shelter-in-place policies.  People are beginning to question the wisdom of nearly shutting down the entire US economy and many echo the cliche that the cure seems worse than the disease.  With over 30 million unemployed Americans and no clear end in sight, there may be some truth to their concern.  Also, it appears that many state and local governments are making decisions regarding stay at home orders in a very haphazard and illogical manner. There are areas with very few cases or deaths, yet some draconian measures remain.  Many other places allow certain types activity but not others, and the lines of distinction seem to be based on arbitrary reasons more than a well thought out, logical line of thinking.  

As people's anxiety, concern, and frustration build, some are taking to the streets to engage in some sort of protest or demonstration to voice their complaints.  Most appear to be right-wing, conservative, Trump supporters.  On the left, there are those who mock such demonstrations make comments that the protesters are a bunch of knuckle-dragging, brain-washed racists who don't understand science.  While, I am not so inclined to join any such protest at the moment, and I think some of those who go out to these events with their "guns outside their paints for all the honest world to feel", are a bit over-the-top, I think much of the Left's contempt is misplaced, wrong and hypocritical. Wearing a gun to protests is not nearly as ridiculous as wearing a giant female genitalia hat!!!

Here is the deal, our government and society was built on the Lockean idea of the consent of the governed.  Jefferson basically paraphrased John Locke when writing the introduction to the Declaration of Independence.  You know the part where Jefferson says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights and among these are Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness."  Many also know that the "pursuit of happiness" was a phrase suggested by Benjamin Franklin instead of Locke's description of property.  Jefferson goes on to explain that if governments don't secure these, people have a duty to abolish the government.  This is radical language!

Those who are protesting are basically concerned with the policies and decisions that are attempting to protect life at the expense of liberty and property.  When the government engages in such policies, it is there obligation to provide a compelling reason to do so.  It is our civic duty to scrutinize those decisions and question the manner in which they are implemented, other wise we set up ourselves for a "long train of abuses" to which more drastic responses from the people will result.  Checking the government should be something we applaud and understand that it is a mechanism that allows to hold on to the idea of the consent of the governed.