March 28, 2020
By JoLynn Live
Our Unalienable Rights At Risk
If you live in Washington State, you may have been one of the unlucky ones reported to the police by your neighbor. We all know the media have largely been fanning flames of division for decades through party-lines, racism, gender, religion, etc. Apparently, tattling on your neighbor is now included in this divisive list.
The Chinese virus is indeed a threat to people and we must be careful when we go out in public. As of this writing, there are 3,700 cases statewide and sadly, 175 deaths but 49,015 people have tested negative for the virus. While residents are holed up in their homes, thousands of business owners are going under, families are losing their homes all due to the fact they have little or no stream of income. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and if they cannot work, most will collapse under the weight of backlogged monthly bills. Applying for unemployment certainly is an option. If you did, you may be fortunate enough to have received your check, however, with the inundation of applications, most checks will likely be delayed.
WA State’s Governor (D), Jay Inslee’s, “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order includes no work, no travel, unless essential. I would venture to say, people needing to work IS essential, yet they are not allowed. Many residents are furious stating Inslee is being hypocritical. He allows himself the privilege to work, and to get paid. Some right-leaning voters consider him to be a non-essential employee who keeps showing up at the office.
The Bellevue Washington police department has created an app called, MyBellevue App. This App assists residents in reporting violations. Neighbors are encouraged to report any illegal activity, which may now include gatherings of more than 10 people, non-essential travel or work.
Our Declaration of Independence was written to protect our freedoms and to make certain our rights are not infringed. The signers believed, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights such as; Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” These rights cannot be bartered away, given away nor taken away except in punishment of crime. Just because we are in this apparent pandemic, do the State Governors or the US Government have the right to remove our unalienable right of Liberty from us? The Government was originally established as a protector of our unalienable rights, not to be the grantor of our unalienable rights. We seem to have put ourselves in a position of waiting for the government to give back to us our rights when in fact, our rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, should never have been given away to begin with.
President Trump did not want a corporate America shut-down. He believes we need to keep the economy moving. Shut-downs appear to be mostly coming from Left-Leaning Governors. Why? Are they really concerned with America spreading the disease or is it so President Donald J. Trump gets enough bad press so he isn’t re-electable in November?
So where does this virus pandemic fit in? Two words: Personal Responsibility. If you are sick, stay home. If you are concerned about getting sick, wear a mask or remain home. Our Founding Fathers clearly penned our freedoms. The government is not to dictate, create nor define what our Life, Liberty or Pursuit of Happiness should look like. That is the privilege of each American citizen.
We read in our history books of the Holocaust, how the German Government turned Israeli neighbor against neighbor. How far-reaching could this concept become in the US? What long arm of the government will tell us what our ‘Liberties’ should look like; if and when we can go to church, seek entertainment, or even work? Looking at this App., it has already happened. At what point will we say we’ve had enough? Americans have been told to stay home, don’t work, don’t play…and we said, “OK.”
In a couple of weeks, if we are lucky, the Government will give us back our unalienable rights….and we will say, “OK.”