Lauren Boebert is barking up the wrong tree
Freedom! What a lovely war-cry! Images of woad-faced Scotsmen fighting their English oppressors come to mind. Tom Hanks firing his 45 at a Tiger Tank in ‘Saving Private Ryan’; John Wayne riding a T-Rex shooting his Colt into the sky. Freedom!
However, as the old adage goes, ‘My freedom to swing my fists ends at your nose.’ Freedom is not limitless. It is not ‘No holds barred.’ Freedom is not a free-for-all. Freedom comes at a price; though, except in wartime, it is not the price of blood and treasure. The typical, everyday price of freedom is far more mundane; the price of freedom is personal responsibility.
Unfortunately, too many deem it too high a price to pay. In these Days of Plague, too many are refusing to pony up. It is estimated that about 30% of Americans are refusing to pay their fair share for the freedom of their involvement in the Great American Experiment. Yet they bellow their war-cry, ‘Freedom’ as if that is will cancel their outstanding debt to the rest of us.
Sadly, woefully, those who are refusing to get vaccinated and wear a mask are reneging on their duty to pay the cost of freedom; OUR Freedom! Counted among those aforementioned 30% who are vax-hesitant/anti-vax are members of the MAGA-cult and the seditious insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. What are we do with these welchers, these deluded swindlers? What is to be done with those who would renegotiate the cost of Freedom?
Lauren Boebert has made a big, public display of refusing the simple task of wearing a mask in Congress. Unfortunately, she is not alone in her refusal to honor her debt to the society which nurtures her.
‘Freedom!’ she blusters, striding arrogantly past the reporters seeking the truth behind her clownish behavior. What Ms Boebert and the freedom-loving 30% have disregarded – for the sake of their own, personal convenience – is that freedom comes with a price.
In the Days of Plague, that price is not so dear or so taxing. The price of freedom these days is simple, if not elegant; wear a mask and get your jabs. Freedom!
