Freedom needs to have some limitations
By Letter to the Editor on April 9, 2021.
Editor:
Many people hate wearing masks. They say requiring masks and not allowing to gather for worship is an attack on the fundamental right to freedom.
But we must remember that we wear masks primarily to prevent spreading deadly virus to other people because we don’t know if we are carrying virus or not. We are to free to endanger people’s lives: like driving through a red light, texting while driving and indiscriminately shooting a gun.
Maybe some people like pubescent boys don’t want to be told. When WWII ended in 1945, many silly little rules were cancelled in Japan. I was an incorrigible grade seven 12-year-old. “Free at last!” I decided to let my hair grow.
During the war, all school boys had to keep their hair very short like a U.S. Marine. I was summoned to the principal’s office.I got tired of cutting hair so often. My hair would not harm anybody except making me look like a weirdo, I said.
They didn’t know what to do with me but they knew they couldn’t force me to cut hair: I kept my hair.
Freedom is our fundamental right for sure.
It’s the hallmark of liberal democracy. Freedom gives birth to creativity.
However, it is a particular dilemma for America where it’s sacred and a gun is the symbol. America is proudly a land of liberty.
The Second Amendment gives the right to bear arms against arbitrary measures.
That’s why there are more creative people in America but it is the most violent society. Americans have won the largest number of Nobel Prizes in all fields.
But it’s where the largest number of people killed by the guns held by fellow Americans – the second largest number of deaths after traffic accidents.
I treasure my freedom. I am keeping the same spirit of a 12-year-old long-hair weirdo. But I want to live a long life, too.
Tadashi (Tad) Mitsui
Lethbridge
-1
Great letter Tad! The anti-mask crowd have made a long and burdensome pandemic worse. Lets just follow the rules that the health authority has laid-out and we should get back to normal quicker. I wear a mask daily at work when I can’t social distance, it’s become so automatic for me that I don’t even realize I am doing it-Its become the new normal for me!
If we have to give-up a right or two along the way to get back to the old normal then so what. Maybe churches need to preach their sermons to their flocks via the internet. Their lawless actions from some only seeks to prolong our agony. As far as the fear that some governments will capitalize on this pandemic to seize additional power over the masses I think is unfounded and scare mongering.
Any government that attempted to grab extra power over its citizens must surely be aware that they would pay the ultimate price at the ballet-box!
an example of j57 the thinker – reads very well. a thumbs up.
This the first time I have agreed with you and it feels good. I have always agreed with Tad.
Just look around this province and see the fools supported by their ignorant UCP MLAs deliberately ignoring the law and putting more and more people at risk.
It’s my understanding that these businesses can apply for government grants to help them while they are shut down, maybe they are too lazy to apply ?
Maybe these MLAs are so desperate for help knowing that they will likely be out of a job in 2023 they think this will help them get re elected.
We haven’t forgotten how Danielle Smith knowing the Wildrose party was in trouble joined Jim Prentice. All nine of them were defeated in the next election.
It certainly proves what they think of Kenney as a leader. He isn’t man enough to do anything about it, and they know it.
Again “Tad” you share your common sense wisdom. I had a little spat with one of my granddaughters awhile back who has an IQ of 138 but is also 21 years old. I pointed out that we are born with our IQ and it stays the same throughout our lives but wisdom comes with age and experience. Of course one has to use that experience for the common good and not for evil.
how is the herald not preventing this rubbish? or, is it paid advertising?
a few days i got word from the gym i go to, telling me an idiot was found to be covid+, and that he knew he had covid for several days while attending. not only attending, but twice a day according the email from the corp office email. and, while almost everyone wore their masks properly and always, to the very last day prior to the recent closure, there remained the one or two idiots that had to come and flout the law. this childish, ill behaviour not only placed everyone at risk, it also further burdened already hard working employees that have had to take on even more work trying to keep the place as disinfected as possible. nose flashers and loud mouthed fools – and not just males…or those that identify as males; female shapes equally as ignorant. alas, gone are the days of the ever nurturing, fairer sex.
Again, speaking to masking, the medical profession found out years ago, that masking during surgical and other procedures requiring sterile technique, and while attending patients with infections, was one of the effective ways to prevent infection and the spread of it. Even some folks from other countries, i.e. Japan, if ill with a ‘cold’, etc. and while out and about, wear a mask. Would some folks who are anti-mask want their surgical team to not wear masks during, for example, their open abdominal surgery? It’s all the same thing….dealing with droplet infections. In short, masks are effective, like it, or not.
ty. so.ab: so very obvious, and sadly, still needed to be said…go figure