I saw a meme on the internet a while ago that said, “Until it’s safe, means never.”
In the midst of the COVID-19 panic, this is a thought that should really make us think about life and how it should be lived.
Is life safe? Does safety provide joy? What liberty will we trade for safety?
What we keep hearing from politicians, “experts,” media personnel and all the other talking heads is that we need to wait until it’s safe. We can’t open schools, re-open our business, walk around town without a mask, visit our friends, walk both directions down a grocery store aisle, or be within six feet of our friends at church until it is safe.
My question is, what is the definition of safe?
While I do not want to promote the idea that no one is getting sick from this virus, I do think it is blatantly obvious that the virus discriminates.
The elderly – with co-morbidity factors – experience a higher rate of death than a 27-year-old who contracts this virus. Similarly, the seven-year-old will likely experience far less problems than the 27-year-old, if he experiences them at all. In fact, the data shows that the survival rate of this virus is over 99.5 percent; not much different than the seasonal flu.
While the discrimination of the virus is different than the flu, there has not been an increase in the overall death of our population. This is evidenced by the most recent All Cause Mortality report published by D.G. Rancourt, PhD. On top of that, there have been a plethora of studies done over the past several years, which show that face masks are simply not effective at stopping the transmission of viruses. Our leaders promote fear and take freedoms anyway. I believe that we are smart enough to make informed decisions for our health, but they obviously disagree.
So when will it be safe? I would say that our current definition is whenever experts say so.
Now, on to why this matters.
Is it safe to get married? Do you know who your spouse will be in 30 years, so that you can weigh the consequences? Is it safe to have a child? Do you know all possible outcomes of who your child will be or what complications they might have? The answer is no. We can’t know these things, and we have no vaccine for it either.
Yet, getting married is the best decision that I have made. My wife is almost ready to have our first child and the joy I have over this is immense.
My point is this, safety doesn’t equal joy. I miss the joy of shaking hands with an acquaintance or seeing a smile on a friend’s face. And we’ve traded those joys for safety.
Joy is found in liberty, and that isn’t always safe. Consider this sad epitaph, “Here lies Jeremy, he always played it safe.”
I’ll pass on that one.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” – Benjamin Franklin.
Jeremy Wiggins is a new columnist for The Graham Star. He is a resident of the Tallulah community.