The point of this blog has been to find and promote a better life for our people. Individual liberty is the foundation of this quest. But what if I failed to notice we have already lost much of this underpinning? Instead of liberty, is fear is ruling the day? This fear may seem overwrought, but it is beginning to keep me up at night.

If you think I’m just foolish, please ask yourself some questions. You might find you’re in the same boat. 

Are you afraid something you said, wrote, or was pictured in the past will surface and cost you big? We hear about someone losing their job or forced to resign because they uttered a single word. Still, it was the wrong one: a photo or video wearing something not in line with today’s dominant culture—a teenage tweet with no intent to hurt costs a young girl her cheer leading scholarship. A reality host is stepping down for a gracious comment about a young lady who once went to an antebellum party. 

Are you worried about a reduced local police force will make you a victim of a crime? Almost all big-city police forces are having trouble filling their ranks. Police are retiring or leaving for suburban or smaller town forces in record numbers is resulting in rising crime in the cities

Are you afraid to express your opinions in all social settings or color them for fear of offending? Many people are avoiding social interactions where people with different political, race, or ethnicity are present.

Do you feel no matter where you get your information, you’re not getting the whole story? More and more, it seems the news is more about telling you what to think rather than helping you understand.

I’m not fearful of losing my lively hood for something I uttered or wrote at this point in my life. I worry that our children might have something in their past that today’s culture warriors find objectionable. If they’re anything like their parents, they did something foolish.

My most significant apprehension is for the grand kids. Instead of getting an education to think critically, they seem to be undergoing a sort of brainwashing. The phony history of the 1619 project, Action Civics, and the Pacha Mama green religion pushed into t young impressionable minds without open discussion allowing dissent is just wrong. This propaganda is the type of education found in authorization-ruled nations. Finding it widespread in the United States is frightening.

While I don’t fear losing my livelihood, a bunch of people suddenly showing up on my front lawn protesting something I wrote is a distinct possibility. It’s happened to others. Maybe they don’t want to intimidate but to achieve equity at our expense. In times past, we would call that breaking and entering.

Now we have a solid alarm system, but it’s useless if there aren’t police available. We’ve considered weaponizing and taking firearm lessons. I thought this was an odd thing for 80-year-olds to contemplate until I realized other vulnerable people have been protecting themselves for quite a while.

Our city hasn’t yet experienced a considerable rise in crimes, so we have some time. Family members in another Metropolis aren’t so lucky. There the crime rate is on an alarming increase. The fact the town is unable to fill its police ranks is a significant factor. Also, the remaining police are less than aggressive. Understandably, Buckhead, an upscale Atlanta neighborhood, has threatened to form a separate town with its own police force. 

One of the worst things to befall a civil society is a populace unable to talk to one another. There is no such thing as a pleasant conversation if the participants are walking on eggshells. Ready to take offense while unaware you’re the one giving it is a recipe for things to get ugly. People banning some words while indiscriminately throwing around racist and white privilege only bring an end to the discussion. Rather than taking the chance of offending, we avoid each other. This situation doesn’t make for good neighbors.

One reason we can’t have reasonable conversations is we have different information. One morning in the very recent past, I read the Wall Street Journal and the local Arizona Republic as is my habit. In the Journal, there was extensive coverage of our southern border problems. Also, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s extensive woes are featured. In the Gannet-owned Republic, nary a word on either. Even though the Cuomo story is big, maybe in Arizona, the Republic editors didn’t think it merited coverage. As a border state, a wave of people coming across is always of interest. Yet, we had no local content. 

Bringing up the border crisis over coffee with neighbors might elicit blanks stares if they only read the Republic. Where we get our information may end more discussions than enrich them. 

Nowhere is the division of news more apparent than in the coverage of the Covid Pandemic. As I’ve pointed out in the series on Covid-19, there has been a stark division in the Scientific Community. Some supported strict lockdowns, including closed schools. Others favored restraining the spread among the most vulnerable, the aged, and those with pre-existing conditions. The rest would go on with life taking sensible precautions, and the schools stay open. 

Both groups claimed to “follow the Science.” The lockdowns had the support of the public health establishment lead by Dr. Fauci. The anti-lockdown group ultimately coalesced around the “Great Barrington Declaration.” Both sides featured eminent people in their fields. In a rational society, this should’ve led to a broad discussion. What would be the long and short consequences of our actions? Cost-benefit analysis needs to be done. 

Instead, the mainstream media backed the lockdowns. They lionized Dr. Fauci as the embodiment of science and showered him with honors. Those opposed to the lockdowns and campaigned for in-person schooling received derision. If you don’t think this is true, take a look at what Dr. Scott Atlas endured. A medical policy expert brought in as an advisor by then-President Trump, he gave excellent council. Increased support for the most vulnerable and open schools was his focus. For his efforts, he suffered an attack by both the public medical establishment and the media. It is enlightening to read his Stanford address covering his experience. 

Of course, Dr. Atlas and all those opposed to the lockdowns will soon have their day in the sun as their proposals are proven to have been the better course. Unfortunately, we’ll be suffering from unnecessarily severe lockdowns for years, maybe decades to come. Just the harm to our children will plague us far into the future.

Will we as a nation realize utilizing only part of the information available to make crucial decisions is a prescription for disaster. We need to talk to each other from the point of view of getting things right. Being woke or politically correct has actual costs. 

I feel better getting all this off my chest. Of course, you might lose some sleep.

The charts still point towards Herd Immunity and return to living by May if not sooner:

The Data from the Dispatch has been either absent or odd. It appears deaths and cases that were missed in the past and been added in. This has caused minor blimps. The major trends are still in tact.