What are we doing, America?  We've destroyed a booming economy, turned a record number of jobs into record unemployment numbers, and given up our basic tenets of liberty — all so we won't get sick?   

We're allowing governors to restrict people's movement; prevent citizens from assembling; and order mandatory masks, testing, and vaccines.  These governors now claim the right to track our every move, to surveil every American in order to ensure compliance.  This shutdown is not just a slippery slope to socialism and communism; it's a downhill slalom.  

How did we get here?  Americans aren't cowards who would eagerly surrender liberty for immunity.  But therein lies the genius of the left.  It's not just about you and me, now, is it? 

The left has hostages: our aging parents, grandparents, sick relatives.  Either we put down the Constitution and slowly back away or the hostages will die. 

This hostage situation is why kids are kept out of school even though they're not seriously affected by the virus.  They're walking time bombs, carriers who will initiate a senior genocide should they be unleashed on the world.

I call BS.

If we want to protect the elderly, how hard would that be?  We can avoid the elderly and those with health issues (duh).  Our "most vulnerable" citizens can wear masks, use sanitizing wipes on surfaces (doors, counters), and minimize their risk.  

And despite the narrative, the virus isn't a death sentence for the elderly.  So how does locking up the rest of America provide them additional protection?  Fact is, it doesn't.

Yet this false narrative of protecting our "most vulnerable" population is reason enough for Americans to comply with martial law, put liberty in abeyance, and suffer economic destruction. 

"Wear none of thine own chains; but keep free, whilst thou art free." —William Penn 

So, ostensibly to protect the hostages, America shut down.  But the death toll was never the real threat of this virus; it was the contagion, how many are infected at the same time. 

Thus the president's "15 Days to SLOW the Spread."  This was time we could use to ramp up production of hospital supplies, of hospitals.  If we slowed the spread, we could "flatten the curve" long enough to keep our health care systems from collapsing. 

OK, done.  We now have enough resources across the country to meet the demands of an outbreak.  So we should be good to go, right? 

Not so fast.

Governors have in the name of health incarcerated their constituents, imposed martial law (shelter-in-place, shutdown) in several states yet remain for the most part unchallenged.  If we had a free press, they'd talk of the constitutionality of these moves.  They'd ask what state health crisis justifies martial law. 

Instead, our enemy media demand that every state shut down.  A ubiquitous question at press briefings is, why doesn't the president just close down the whole damn country? 

The president talks over the media's head about the Constitution, federalism.  Since reporters don't have any prepared notes on that stuff, it usually shuts down the subject, for a day anyway.

OK, but we're going to reopen now.

Not so fast. 

Many states that reopen will do so with conditions, a virtual ankle bracelet in case we break parole.  There will be mandatory masks, tests, and vaccines.  People will no longer have a say over their personal health because we have to think of the general population.  I bring you Communism 101. 

As far as gloves and masks, that's insane.  Gloves are a surface, and germs can live on a surface.  People still touch their faces with gloves, touch other surfaces with gloves.  It's possible gloves are worse than our hands because we wash and sanitize our hands, not with gloves. 

And I'm sorry, but the masks are just embarrassing.  Sure, high-risk individuals should take every measure to protect themselves, including masks.  But for the rest of us, why?  The coronavirus isn't airborne.  What are we doing? 

A chilling reality of mandatory testing to stamp individuals virus-free is that it's not so far from Bill Gates's digital certificate of health.  Employers who buy into forced testing would soon concede it's far easier to scan employees than test them.

And how long until stores require proof of a customer's health before they let him inside?  Pretty soon people won't be able to buy a loaf of bread without a digital health certificate.  But it's all good, necessary to protect the masses. 

So people will wear a mask because if not, if we interact with other humans unprotected, we'll kill not just ourselves, but many others. 

I call BS. 

If our mere presence will kill people, then we already have blood on our hands.  Tens of thousands of Americans are hospitalized every year with the flu.  Tens of thousands die from the flu.  

Sept. 27, 2018 — Influenza was deadlier last season than it has been for at least four decades, killing 80,000 Americans. 

Did we as careless, uncaring Americans kill 80,000 people with a handshake, a hug, or a visit?  Did we murder 80,000 people by not wearing a mask or gloves? 

Or could they have been exposed to the flu in a store, a doctor's office, at church, the hairdresser, the school play, or a hundred other places we go every day?  We don't need to take responsibility for spreading a virus; the viruses do a bang-up job of spreading on their own.  It's what they do.

But talking about avoiding this virus is again the wrong discussion.  No matter what we do to dodge this virus, in the end, we're all going to die of something.  It might be this virus or the flu, cancer or heart disease, a blood clot, an aneurism, or even a car accident, but no one's getting out of this world alive. 

"You cannot hide from danger.  Death floats on the air, creeps through the window, comes with the handshake of a stranger.  If we stop living because we fear death, then we have already died." —Margaret Weis, The Soulforge

Am I saying the virus isn't bad?  No, it is.  Some people get very sick; some will die.  But it's not the bubonic plague. 

• Most corona virus patients (80%) have mild symptoms.  
• A new study shows that the mortality rate for this virus is not ten times as lethal as the flu, but very close to flu's 0.1%.
• "98% to 99% of people infected with the virus will recover."
• Plus an anti-malarial  drug, hydroxychloroquine, shows great promise as an effective treatment and possibly a prophylactic (preventative measure). 

We can as a nation survive this virus without government oversight.  As free people, we should be able to make our own health decisions.  Isn't that what the left says about abortion?  And that's a 50% death rate. 

Too many Americans have died for our liberty for us to squander this treasure over a virus.  Over a million American soldiers — young, healthy — ran headlong into gunfire, navigated mine fields, dodged bombs, and otherwise gave their lives so Americans can be free. 

Not a single patriot sacrificed his life, his future, to keep Americans from getting sick. 

The government claims it's protecting us from the virus.  With the Constitution in lockdown, who's protecting us from the government? 

"There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern.  They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." —Daniel Webster