by Jim_Alaska » Fri Apr 17, 2020 10:23 am
So right Joe, glad to see that there are a few left who are not afraid to say "the king has no clothes on."
What follows I posted on another forum:
______________________________________________
This is from a legislator that "gets it".
Together We Can Restore Freedom, Free Markets,
and Constitutionally Limited Government.
Let’s end the Shameful Destruction of our Economy
RIGHT NOW!
Did you ever imagine that our government could cancel all Easter services within Oregon and nobody would complain?
Did you ever think that some elected official could declare your daughter’s March, April, or May wedding a risk to public health and cancel the whole affair? Or, with the stroke of the pen, void the transportation and hotel bookings for all of your family, friends and guests, telling them they were no longer welcome into our lives, or neighborhoods?
If this doesn’t sound like a bad bit of dystopian fiction, then I don’t know what does. When we stop to consider the reasons, rational, or logic of the “Stay Home/Save Lives” narrative, we see that it isn’t reasonable, logical or rational – it is politically motivated.
It is the deep-state’s favorite tool – FEAR–MONGERING.
During the COVID-19 event, there have been 132,951 deaths worldwide, as of 4/15/2020. The Center for Disease Control (CDC), federal officials and most state government health authorities like sharing aggregated numbers with us because they are large and sound very formidable. These numbers include individuals who had COVID-19 and other chronic diseases such as cancer, chronic lung disease, severe obesity, diabetes or cardiovascular disease.
Total deaths in the US are approximately 27,605, which sounds more reasonable for our nation’s population of 330 million. Oregon’s death toll is 55 which is under 1.3 persons per 100,000 population.
While each of these lost lives represents an enormous tragedy for friends, families and loved ones, most of us realize that death eventually finds each of us. No one knows the day or the hour. This is not meant to be dismissive, but since our culture claims a deep appreciation of cold science, hard facts and reality, then each of us will someday face the inevitability of death for ourselves and our loved ones.
Here are some other worldwide numbers to consider, as of 4/15/2020:
3,750,391 people have died from other communicable diseases, in the first 4 months of 2020. The communicable disease number is nearly 136X the COVID-19 death toll for the US during the same period.
140,517 deaths from seasonal flu;
1,444,218 deaths from smoking;
389,985 deaths from traffic accidents;
2,372,725 deaths caused by cancer;
309,803 deaths by suicide;
722,573 deaths from alcohol abuse.
None of the tragic numbers in the above statistics warranted the economic shutdown of our entire economy. Yet, these statistics are many times more than the COVID-19 death toll. (Running Stats here)
How can our Governor claim this inappropriate and economically devastating shutdown is based on data? Doesn't it look otherwise. What if this shutdown is just the same old Democrat policy spouted by Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, when he gave advice to his party's faithful during the Great Recession Bank Bailout of 2008? Remember,
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that
is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”
The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are testaments to the fact that during the founding era, Americans were willing to fight for and protect their freedom as individuals, families and self-governing colonies.
Today, instead of protecting that liberty which our Founding Fathers worked so hard for, Americans are willing to give it up over a statistically irrelevant fear of COVID-19 varnished with some political spit and lots of public treasure.
Let’s look at an analogous situation from American history. George Mason who was a farmer and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention, recalled a time during the Revolutionary War when General Washington’s army was about to evacuate New York. He describes heated discussions regarding the pros and cons of burning New York city to the ground.
Those in favor of burning of the city thought, if the homes, shops, equipment and barns in the city were left intact then that would provide too much shelter and too great of an advantage for the British troops. Mason recalls,
"I am surprised to hear of the sentiments of so many wise and worthy gentlemen, to burn the city of New-York, that has cost so much time and treasure to erect…
“If we burn the city, how many hundreds of worthy inhabitants shall we distress and many wholly ruin, who have only left the city to escape the dangers of war, and perhaps may return again in a few months. If the British troops burn it let them take [suffer] the curses of an innocent people.
“As for my part I can see no more reason for burning the city than that a wealthy farmer should burn his barns because the rats have got into them.”
I would suggest that our out-of-touch experts are making a similar mistake. We are allowing those with no vested interest in our home, retail or industrial businesses to quarantine and shutter our enterprises when it should be our responsibility to ensure our own safety and the safety of those in our communities. Besides, it looks as though people are acting out of fear and a false belief that the government can save them.
Lastly, we are quarantining the wrong population. The elderly and at-risk populations can be easily quarantined and cared for with far less cost and tragedy to the overall economy. Common-sense would preserve the energy, toil, hard-work and investments that have generated great prosperity for our communities while protecting the vulnerable.
We are willfully giving away our freedom and liberty over an exaggerated fear created by government actors who are peddling a politically driven narrative. The government cannot save us, but they can certainly destroy our livelihoods – Just look around...
Remember, If we don’t stand for rural-Oregon values and common sense…
No one will!!
Let’s end the Shameful Destruction of our Economy
RIGHT NOW!
Regards,
Dennis Linthicum
Oregon State Senate 28