Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Understanding our Rights during Covid-19: A Democrat’s Journey!
To say that I am let down by the number of friends and family I have that do not understand government or the constitution would be an understatement.
I have to admit that at many times I am sadly also one of those people. Do I have the constitution memorized? No. Do I know all of my rights at all times? Not really.
But when I read a political meme or article or factoid or post that cites our rights, do I do my due diligence and research to make sure I’m understanding things at least a little bit more and that I’m going to move forward with more (and factual) information?
You betcha.
So, in regards to Covid-19, I’d like to learn a little bit more about my rights. Heck, let’s learn our rights together!
I’m gonna start first with where it all began: The Declaration of Independence. I’m gonna refer to it as the DOI for short, because I like how if you say that out loud it sounds like something we obviously should know. Like “DOI, obviously these are our rights!”
The DOI states that all Americans have the right to three things: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (not spelled with a y, unless you’re Will Smith). What does that mean?
Out of convenience and because I’d imagine our founders wrote it in an order for a reason, we’ll go with the first on the list: LIFE.
The right to Life means just that. We all have the right to be alive and living. Pretty awesome right, right? I’m gonna try to keep breathing as long as I can, and I hope you do too. The right to Life has led us to have a few restrictions in America, including outlawing things like drunk driving and smoking in some areas. Why? Because a drunk driver can hit and kill me, and so can second hand smoke. If I’m killed by something you did, then you took away my right to life, right? Not cool! Ok, this one is easy!
Now let’s say that I have a gun (which, thanks to another American document, I have a right to have! #secondamendment) If I take that gun and I point it at you and spray some bullets in your direction with my eyes closed, is that cool? Probably not, because I might kill you! And that would tragically take away your right to Life! WHAT?! BAD AMERICAN! NO!
So, let’s take away the gun and replace it with a viral pathogen. We’ll call him ‘Rona. If I walk around with a big, bad, ‘Rona in my mouth and spew it all over you, I could effectively make you very, very ill, effectively taking away your right to Life. That would suck and would be totally un-American of me! Instead of being un-American and possibly threatening your life or putting my own life at risk in case you decide to be un-American, I’m going to take precautions and listen to the restrictions in my area by staying a safe distance from you and wearing a mask.
Alright, onto the second right: Liberty! (I can’t write that word without the tone of Liberty Mutual ringing in my head, thank you pervasive advertising!) Anyway, Liberty. Crazy enough the dictionary has two definitions for this:
Liberty: 1.) the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views. 2.) the power or scope to act as one pleases.
Now obviously we have already discussed Life, so I think that we can all agree that our Founding Fathers didn’t think definition #2 was the one they were intending, otherwise we could all run around willy nilly doing whatever we wanted, including — gasp — taking away other’s right to Life, which we have rights against in America!
So back to definition #1. This is where I get that it might be confusing, because the restrictions from the Coronavirus sure do seem to be imposing on our way of life and behavior, right?!
However, we have already determined that people have a right to Life and that some restrictions need to be made to help them ensure a path to achieving that continued oxygen input into their systems. No drunk drivers, no driving above the speed limit, no randomly holding someone at gunpoint even if you can legally own that gun, no suffocating your husband because he snores too loudly, and no waltzing around without a safe social distance and a mask, because all of these things could take away someone else’s right to life.
Let’s consider a more recent restriction that many of us have lived through that took away a teensy bit of Liberty in return for Life: Texting while driving.
I really like texting! I also really like driving! Remember the glory days when I could combine the two together? Well, we have statistical data that tells us that these actions could be a recipe for disaster. And in an attempt to save me from taking away my own or another’s right to Life by texting behind the wheel, the government put restrictions in place that took away my right to touch my phone while careening 65mph down the freeway.
But what about my right to Liberty though?! Where’s my freedom to behave the way I want behind the wheel? Why are these Covid-19 restrictions put in place for the safety of ourselves and others and supported by global data any different?
That’s what I’m saying, people!
Gah! We have just proven that our right to Liberty can on occasion be overridden by our right to Life in America, and for our own safety! Political documents be weird, right?
So lastly, we’ll check in our right to the Pursuit of Happiness. Keep in mind, big daddies Jefferson, Franklin and Adams did not note that we have a right to BE happy all of the time (but who knows what’s possible with enough Prozac!) We have the right to the PURSUIT of happiness. We can all work towards a vision in which we see ourselves as happy. You know when most of us won’t be happy? WHEN WE DEAD. I mean, maybe you’ll be happy in Heaven or whatever you believe, but your body definitely won’t be able to smile anymore. Does your vision of happiness include someone making your family really, really sick and them having to go to the hospital? No?
OK.
We have now determined that Coronavirus restrictions actually support the DOI! The restrictions actually support our right to Life, and by putting small restrictions on our Liberty — something we have proven government does to support our right to Life all the time — we can really be American by supporting everyone’s right to life! Then, by all of us being alive, we can push forward on our aspirations and that Pursuit of Happiness.
AMERICA! We’re fucking bonkers about our right to Life, amirite?!
Someone I know mentioned that we should know the difference between Privilege and Rights, and I 100% agree. A right is defined as “a moral or legal entitlement to have or obtain something or to act in a certain way.” Privilege is defined as “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.”
It is a privilege (a special advantage) to be born American with the right (a legal entitlement) to Life. And that right to Life means that we all have a moral AND legal entitlement to act in a way that helps ensure others’ right to Life.
Stay safe out there, America.
