Today our overreaching governor announced that state police will start issuing citations to anyone disobeying her edicts. . .ones that have yet to be clearly elucidated. This creates a crisis of conscience for both me and the state police. For my part, I intend to continue practicing responsible social distancing, to not hoard, to protect my family, and to help my neighbors when I can. For example, when neighbors recently burned out their freezer and were panicking over the potential of losing their quarantine food supply, I shifted things around in my freezers freeing up the backup freezer I keep for elk season (last year’s elk has mostly been consumed). They were very relieved their food supply could be saved. That being said, I intend to ride my bike each day in open defiance of our governor’s ongoing audition to become Joe Biden’s running mate. It’s as much a matter of personal therapy as it is an exercise of my personal freedom.
The question is, will state police enforce her repressive edicts or will they uphold their oath and protect state citizens while defending the constitution? The impending collision between doing what’s right in the face of percolating political panic is immanent and history will hold this moment to account.
Before you pounce and accuse me of being irresponsible and not appreciating the crisis we’re in, I want to clearly state that I am a huge supporter of social distancing and doing what we can to “flatten the curve.” I have been involved in pandemic modeling for over a decade and can tell you, a) I not only fully appreciate where we are, I know where we are heading, and b) in all our studies the one underlying theme was always that the reaction to a pandemic is always worse than the virus itself.
What’s happening politically was predicted by our models and is not helpful. What this crisis calls for is measured responses that optimize societal risk relative to the need to remain viable, functioning, and able to provide goods and services. This crisis requires measures that protect those most at risk while permitting the less vulnerable to function. Now is the time for thoughtful leadership, what we are seeing in congress and in state governments is fear and the pettiness of panic, neither of which is what this nation needs.
Confessions to My Governor
Hey Michelle, I need to come clean about something. After learning our local grocery store finally restocked, I secretly slinked into town on my trusty scooter, stealthily avoiding detection by your COVID police. At great personal risk to both my health and liberty, I successfully managed to slink there and back in the full bright light of a crisp Northern New Mexico day with two dozen eggs stashed in my saddlebags. . .along with a bottle of shampoo. . . and a chocolate bar as my personal reward for exercising my rights as a free breathing, free thinking, American.
