Note: This article is the second in what I expect to be a series of articles on the current coronavirus pandemic and our state and federal government responses to it. Those government responses have resulted in an unprecedented suspension of our Constitutionally guaranteed rights and a shattered economy. The question that now must be asked is, has it been worth it? Here’s my answer…Please read on. MA  

(The first article, Covid 19 and the Purpose of Government, can be accessed through this link:  http://fromanativeson.com/2020/05/04/covid-19-and-the-purpose-of-government-by-mark-arnold/.)

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In my opinion, by far the biggest threat we face in this coronavirus “pandemic” is not the physical danger from the virus itself, but the justification it provides for those who would have us, for whatever reason, surrender our natural human rights. I am not talking about some vast conspiracy theory here. Indeed, we have already been told that our most cherished First Amendment rights: the right to peacefully assemble; the right to our own religious practices; and to some extent, our freedom of speech; not to mention our right to pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, because of a claimed threat imposed by a virus, have been suspended. If there is a conspiracy to deny us our rights, and I am not saying there is, based on what we have witnessed in our nation over the last couple of months, it is already well underway.

And why? Initially we were told that the expected number of cases of illness stemming from the virus would overwhelm our health care system, and therefore extreme measures were warranted, to prevent the virus’ spread. The only problem is, the expected overwhelm never really happened, at least not to the degree we were led to believe it would. Here in Seattle, in preparation for the expected flood of patients, a complete auxilliary hospital was created with hundreds of beds in the Centurylink Field Events Center by the US Army, but it closed within three days after opening with not a single Covid patient having been treated there—the extra hospital simply wasn’t needed. In New York, the area of the country hardest hit by the virus, the Federal government dispatched the USS Comfort, a one thousand bed hospital ship, to New York City to unburden the “overburdened” hospitals there. Within a couple weeks it became obvious that, as with Seattle, the extra hospital wasn’t needed. Yet, in the State of Washington, my state, Governor Jay Inslee is now saying we must continue to stay holed up in our houses and apartments until 31 May, and he retains the option to extend it.

And, again, why? To avoid another possible spike of illness and to save lives, he says. (Mysteriously, the “overwhelming the health care system” reason seems to have disappeared from Inslee’s patter.) So, now we must continue to forgo our rights to prevent an illness spike that hasn’t happened and may never happen, and to prevent more deaths. Meanwhile, thousands of small businesses all across our state are being damaged, many irreparably. The same is true across the nation, and tens of millions of people have lost their jobs, creating the largest unemployment crisis in the United States since the Great Depression. I ask you, in both material terms and human terms, what is the cost of that? I also ask you, seriously, is it worth it? Obviously, Jay Inslee and most of the other governors, and even President Trump, on the face of it, consider that it is, or they wouldn’t be continuing with their community and economy destroying actions in the name of necessity. The reason, they say, is to save lives.

That’s a tough one to argue with, so I’m not going to try; except to say that to me, some things are worth dying for, and at the top of that list you can put our natural human rights. Not too long ago, over 400,000 US military personnel died in World War II for that exact reason. Harkening back to the Revolutionary War days, when the Virginian patriot Patrick Henry spoke the stirring words, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” [1], I truly believe that our Founders would agree with me on this. In their day they had devastating disease scourges too. The small pox epidemic of 1775, relatively speaking, was far worse than this coronavirus, with a 30% death rate of those infected. Yellow fever was a major threat in those days, afflicting at various times most of the major towns on the eastern seaboard. Did those epidemics stop them from crafting the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? Their legacy handed down to us today answers that question.

And when it comes to deaths attributed to Covid 19, consider these facts: In the State of Washington, as of this writing (10 May, 2020), the confirmed cases of coronavirus amount to 16,891. Of these 931 are reported to have died from the disease, or roughly 5.5% of those infected. In a state of 7.8 million people, the 16,891 cases represents about 1/5^th of 1% of the population, while the 931 deaths represents .0001 percent (one one-hundredth of 1%) of the population. In other words, assuming these stats are accurate, apparently it’s extremely difficult to get the disease and nearly impossible to die from it.

Now, Jay Inslee might say, “Yeah, but that’s because of the measures we took to close down the state, impose social distancing and all the rest;” to which I would respond, “could we not have achieved the same or similar results, and without all the collateral social and economic damage, by quarantining and caring for the ill while allowing the rest of us to get on with it; you know, like Sweden did?” Unfortunately, because Inslee and the other governors, and even President Trump, in my opinion, didn’t adhere to their oath of office pledges to uphold the Constitution, we’ll never know the answer to that question.

Now, I realize that perhaps none of the above makes much difference to the loved ones of a person who has died because of this virus, and I truly empathize with people in that situation; I truly do. At the same time, however, it’s important to keep in mind that the loss occasioned by death is an inevitable part of living—bodies are not immortal; even if, as many believe, souls are. This last year something like 40,000 Americans died in car crashes, over 600,000 died of cancer and nearly 650,000 died of heart disease. The cancer and heart disease death rates dwarf that of the coronavirus, which nationwide is supposed to be about 80,000 at this writing.

Obviously, based on those stats, living is risky business. It always has been, even more so in earlier times. I believe our Founders understood that HOW we live during the time that we have on this earth is the truly important thing; and that it ought to be done with freedom, dignity and respect for the individual citizen, and with a government designed to secure and protect the natural human rights of all of us. That is what they passed on to us, and that is what hundreds of thousands of Americans over the last couple hundred years have given their lives to preserve.

In these challenging times for freedom, I’m asking you, please don’t forget that!

Copyright © 2020

By Mark Arnold

All Rights Reserved

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[1] Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician, and orator best known for his declaration to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): “Give me Liberty, or give me death.” A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786. He also was a Virginia delegate to the 1^st and 2^nd Continental Congresses in 1774 and 1775-76.