Liberty, Sacifice, and Perspective

To those among us who have been declaring their right as free non-immune citizens to take the risk of returning to normal activity...yes, you have the right to take a personal risk that does not entail the endangerment of other people. You do not, however, have the right to reengage with society in midst of the largest pandemic in the last 100 years when such a decision is likely to lead to the infection of yourself and countless others who will have preceded you and who will follow in your wake. To put it another way, you may choose to proclaim your personal right to cast yourself from a cliff and risk the dire consequences of such a decision; at the same time, you do not have the right to tether yourself to hundreds of others who will be cast into the abyss following your lead.

In a time when thousands of medical professionals, hospital workers, transit employees, and first responders are putting their lives on the line 24/7 in the service of their fellow human beings, it is an act of quintessential selfishness to complain about the inconvenience of not enjoying the comforts of normal daily life. We are all being asked to make a variety of sacrifices in a collective effort to turn back the tide of this terrible disease. So when the next person cries out that his personal liberty has been threatened by the situation at hand, please direct their attention to the thousands who lie dying attached to respirators and to the heroic efforts of the medical personnel working tirelessly to save these precious lives; or to the other souls who will die alone at home or on the street for lack of access to medical care. Perhaps only then will it become clear that sacrifice, in all its manifestations, is precisely what is required of us all in the fight against the tyranny of the Covid-19 pandemic.