A cry for freedom or slavery to ignorance?

To the anti-vaxxers: We all hear your thinly-veiled plea for personal freedom, and I think we understand it. What we don’t understand is:

Where was this cry for freedom when the state of Idaho mandated vaccinations for childhood diseases to attend public schools? Why did we not hear it concerning speed limits, seatbelts, using cellphones while driving, driving impaired, or wearing pants and shoes in restaurants? How about practicing of medicine without a license? Shouldn’t we have the freedom to do all these things? No we should not, because all of those things are a matter of public safety and health. I have seldom heard of anyone vigorously opposing any of these laws which govern our behaviors.

That was before the advent of Fox “news,” social media, and the rise of fanatical right wing politics, Trumpism specifically.

Idaho spends less on public education than any other state, and the outcome of that is evident in the loss of critical thinking, the inability and/or unwillingness to understand even the simplest tenets of science, and the embracing of authoritarianism.

Those who think masks and shots are nonsense evidently don't believe that Idaho’s hospitals are at crisis capacity, that 650,000 Americans are dead, or that COVID-19 is a public health issue. Instead you believe someone on Fox with NO medical expertise, a post on Facebook, or that this is a hoax.

Denial of reality and of the rights of others is not freedom, it is slavery to ignorance.

DANIEL STRAYER

Bonners Ferry