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What does it mean to live in a free society? A free society requires individuals to be responsible for their own actions. The United States has always been a place where people from all nations came and enjoyed the fruits of hard work, independence, self-government and blessings of liberty.
But why do so many Americans insist that opposing forceful masks is equivalent to hating their fellow citizens? There are no correlations with these two ideas. Opposing forceful mask wearing means that you, as a free individual, knows how to take care of yourself and those around you.
For instance, I would wear a mask in the presence of other professors who feel unsafe around those who do not wear masks. Essentially, I would do so because I care about their well-being.
In a free society, institutions such as families and universities should be able to make their own choices. It is sad to see how many children are attending classes virtually and not in-person learning with their teachers and friends. Families deserve better services than virtual learning.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is among the advocates of this personal responsibility, having recently lifted mask mandates and ordered all businesses to reopen. Those who feel uncomfortable not wearing masks are more than welcome to practice social distancing and wear masks around others. Abbott warned that COVID-19 has not been eradicated; however, what the governor is saying is that it is the job of each individual to be responsible for their well-being.
The governor defensed his decision saying that people and businesses do not need the government telling them how to operate. Mississippi followed suit as well. Governor Tate Reeves lifted mask wearing mandates earlier this month. These two governors showed that they are listening to the concerns of their constituents and that they trust the COVID-19 vaccine distributions of the federal government.
According to the CDC, Hispanics/Latinos consist of 20.7% of all COVID infections and only 12.2% of all COVID deaths. The number of infections and deaths among white Americans is much higher. Does that mean that COVID-19 is predominantly against White people and not Hispanics/Latinos? Could perhaps family values and responsibility be a reason? Perhaps that sounds much efficient than the previous nonsense comment. Obviously, family values are extremely important to stop COVID-19 because the family allows all individuals to flourish with freedom and responsibility.
Still, there are many other factors that these two states need to implement to move in the freedom direction. For example, school reopening to low-income minority students in many cities around their states and allow parents to have a say in the decision-making. If these two states want to be more liberty states, they should have school vouchers so low-income students can go to a school that allows in-person instruction.
As mentioned before, these are great examples of what it means to live in the United States. Every decision works best at the state level, so New York and California have different views and policies on face masks, while states like Texas and Mississippi have distinct policies on face masks. So far, there has not been a talk on New York and California to end mandate face mask wearing. The only thing to hope is to see those two states join Texas and Mississippi have more liberty in the near future for their citizens and their families.
