Coronavirus: Thread

[grarpamp]

The COVID19 Outbreak is Highlighting An Even More Dangerous Epidemic in America

Mar 6, 2020 Rob Loggia

With the COVID19 virus threatening most of the world, the debate about
how best to respond is raging in the public space. The answers are by
no means settled questions, but like any active threat these could be
life and death questions for many people. Some of this discussion has
been alarming and reminds me of some of the other calamities we have
faced as a nation, and how we ultimately responded to them. How will
this one end, I wonder?

There is not much I can remember from my elementary school days
through the haze of the 30 long years since. I remember being
assembled in the school auditorium to watch the Challenger launch in
1986, and being sent back to our classrooms with the teacher in tears
after it exploded. I remember the smell of the hallways, a strange mix
of rubber mats and antiseptic cleaner that, to this day, I have not
encountered elsewhere. Mostly I just recall not liking being told what
to do all the time.

A few other notable memories have stuck with me. One of them is the
day one of my classmates asked a question about AIDS. I have a vague
sense that the question itself was unwelcome, though I do not remember
the details. Nonetheless some discussion did occur, because one of my
other classmates asked another question, and I will never forget the
answer. What this classmate of mine wanted to know was why we didn't
just arrest everyone that had AIDS to stop it from spreading. A
simplification, to be sure, from a young mind earnestly wanting to
know. I remember the answer coming back quickly; the teacher may have
even snapped at the student:

"Because this is America, and we don't do that kind of thing here."

Sage words. This teacher captured, in one sentence, the essence of
what was intended to be a founding principle of the United States and
a guiding light for future generations. America was meant to be a
nation where the government bows before the citizen, where natural
rights and civil liberties supersede temporary safety and even
enduring security. In short, "the land of the free, the home of the
brave."

Growing up and studying history, I learned that we, as Americans,
didn't always adhere to these principles very well. Times of real or
imagined peril cause people to lose sight of principles, and we have
been no exception. The Red Scare reign of terror presided over by
Senator McCarthy is a classic example of at least some Americans
losing the script. So is the internment of Japanese Americans,
instigated by a President that unironically told the American people
that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Indeed. But he
can hardly be blamed. After all, he had the example of the American
Civil War, a period where the fundamental legal right of Habeas Corpus
was suspended and where anti-draft demonstrations were brutally
suppressed by the military. Even the founders couldn't get it right,
codifying blatently unjust racist exceptions to natural rights into
our founding documents as they did.

Some people like to use these examples as evidence that the principle
itself is flawed. If our founders couldn't even get it right, then
maybe it is wrong to believe in these things. They are a myth. I
reject that kind of thinking, as we all should. But before we're too
hard on our predecessors for failing to live up to the American ethos,
we should consider how well we're living up to it today. And putting
aside the history book, I've lived through enough to tell me that
we're doing worse at it, and not better, than our predecessors. One
can dismiss a poor reaction as a moment of weakness. But in my
lifetime, I have witnessed many Americans adopt cowardice and fear as
a lifestyle. The response to COVID19 is just the latest example.

In an authoritarian dictatorship, little or no justification is
required for brutality. In an open society, such tactics must be
justified, and one of the only things that will work is a
corresponding level of fear in the population. Civil liberties were
greatly curtailed after 9/11, despite President Bush telling Americans
that we must not allow the terrorists to win by allowing them to alter
our way of life. Monstrosities like the Patriot Act were supported by
many Americans only because they gave into fear. Their fear of such a
thing happening again overpowered any principles they might have had.

The War on Terror, the War on Drugs, the War on Crime, and now the War
on Disease... all rooted in fear, some of it justified. What is not
justified, what is never justified, is allowing this fear to devolve
into cowardice, the moral equivalent of saying "Shoot him if you have
to shoot someone and even if he doesn't deserve it, just don't shoot
me." Supporting measures that move us closer towards being a police
state. And how many of these people have the nerve to wrap themselves
in the flag while they're supporting these things - the antithesis of
what the flag is meant to represent.

And now with COVID19 we are seeing it again. People - in many cases
the very same people - that have been flinging shit for two years at
President Trump on the grounds that he is a latent dictator looking to
seize power and rule like a fascist are now flinging shit at him for
not responding like said authoritarian fascist to this threat. A
cautious, measured response IS the expected American response to
crisis. Not mania. Not boots and bullets.

Many of my fellow Americans seem to be on the cusp of losing the
script entirely. I've seen articles praising the Chinese response to
the disease and asking why we don't do that here.

"Because this is America, and we don't do that kind of thing here."

We don't send vans to the homes of Americans and forcibly cart them
away to an internment center. We don't weld people into buildings. We
don't arrest people for being sick. And because we are an armed
population, such efforts would be difficult even if enough people were
convinced to try them. Try duplicating China's response here. Some of
it will succeed, but I can promise you that at least some of your
officials will be returning with bullets in them. As it should be.

Unfortunately, we have reached a point where some people would prefer
this to an increased chance of catching a disease. People who have
become so afraid of anything bad potentially happening to them, ever,
that they prefer life in a prison to freedom. And with the support of
politicians, who love power and don't need much prodding, they are
slowly undertaking to change the face of our nation. To put out that
light that was intended to shine as an example for all the world.

It is reasonable to be afraid of getting sick. I have older and
younger people that I care deeply for, and I don't want to see them
get sick, and potentially die. I'm a heavy smoker in his 40's, so I'm
not exactly low risk either. Taking precautions is reasonable.
Preparing for outages is reasonable, so reasonable that one could ask
why it took something like this for someone to be prepared for
disruptions. After all, not all emergencies are announced in advance.

But to simply freak out? To call for the transformation of our society
into something other than what it was meant to be? To support even
more restrictions, and draconian authority, by the government over the
natural rights of Americans? Just so you can be safe, secure? Even if
that safety is ultimaly an illusion? Because it is. All safety is an
illusion, ready to be shattered at any moment by the icy hand of
chance. No, this kind of frightened reasoning is unbefitting of an
American citizen. People promoting safety at the expense of all else
should be called by the rest of us what they are: cowards.

This may seem harsh but consider all that they would destroy - have
destroyed - in service to their morbid fears. These people are a
threat to all of us, a threat to what little freedom we still enjoy -
what freedom they have left us with. Call them out, people, while we
still have anything left to protect.



About the author
Rob Loggia is the founder of LoggiaOnFire Magazine. He has been
published in the International Business Times UK, Digital Trends and
on numerous online blogs and platforms.