Little Tyrants

I don’t like writing out of anger. Hence the reason I haven’t written anything in a while. Every time I sit down to pen a few thoughts, my mood gets dark, my fingers develop a mind of their own, and what comes out is less than uplifting or redeeming.

I also detest the notion of being repetitive, of banging the same gong time and again just to a different rhythm. Rage bait is not why I do what I do, and neither is clicks. If I have something to say, I say it, and time will judge my words to be either true or reveal that I have missed the mark.

If we all jump into the way back machine of a month ago, you will remember my skepticism at numbers like two million being bandied about as far as casualties from this virus were concerned. I said it then and was met with less than savory reactions that the projections were woefully inflated.

It was also some time ago that I pointed out that the remedy for this malady would be worse than the malady itself. Between risking the potentiality of contracting a virus for which 80% of the people who contract it are asymptomatic, 99.2% of those showing symptoms recover, and the mortality rate is comparable to the flu or watching your kids starve, I know what most people would pick.

As of this writing, food banks are already being stretched, cars are lining up for miles to get free food, and the pontificating blowhards otherwise known as our elected officials insist that they see no end in sight to the shutdown. For your own safety, you must stay in your home even though you are perfectly healthy until you deplete all of your savings if you had any, run out of food, and die of starvation because you know, you might get a cough and a tickle in your throat if you don’t.

If this faux crisis brought on by endless, incessant, global fear porn has done anything, it has exposed the Napoleonic, tyrannical tendencies of certain elected officials. More specifically governors, and certain overeager lapdogs in law enforcement for whom the letter of the law is superior to common sense or human decency.

Little tyrants are sprouting up everywhere, each more cringe-worthy than the next, attempting to impose their will while circumventing the constitution and the bill of rights, because, you know, your safety matters more to them than it does to you, or some such bull dookie.

They have taken it upon themselves to determine what is essential for you. It’s no great surprise that while church isn’t deemed essential, the ability to kill your baby in the womb still is, you know, because every life matters, and if you have to lose your livelihood for the greater good, so be it. But don’t you dare declare a stay of execution for a defenseless baby.

All told we’ve had circa forty thousand deaths attributed in part to this virus in these United States since the beginning of the year. Granted, nowadays, if someone comes into the morgue with a gunshot wound to the face, they’re still considered a Covid19 death, but that’s beside the point. During this same time, there have been more than 150 thousand abortions, also within the borders of these United States. But yeah, all that matters is life and stuff.

Weak-minded simpletons have gotten a taste of power, and boy, it sho’ do taste good! Why, there’s nothing more addictive than holding the lives and livelihoods of your fellow man in the palm of your hand, and just because you feel like it, prohibit them from going for a walk, or driving in their car.

If you are vulnerable, sick, or afraid of being sick, by all means, stay home. But for the rest of us, for those who look at the numbers and see that something is fishy in Denmark, for those who can do a bit of computation and conclude that if people don’t get back to work soon then flu-like symptoms will be the least of this nation’s problem, we should have the option of taking responsibility for our own actions, and be allowed to go back to work.

If sixty thousand people end up dying from this virus, at the cost of $10 trillion to the economy, which isn’t even accounting for lost productivity, that puts as at roughly $130 million per individual. Just thought I’d throw that in, because somebody did the math for me, and I thought it was a very telling number.

We can’t bubble wrap the world. We can’t all be walking around wearing crash helmets, heavy padding, and shin guards, just in case another human being might accidentally run into us. We can’t all become hermits and basement dwellers. We can’t all sit inside for so long that we start reacting to sunlight as though we were some sort of vampire whenever we venture out for more Ramen and Cheez Wiz, only to be harassed by a local constabulary who really doesn’t see a need for you to be outside at this time. If you haven’t eaten all the cardboard in your house before deciding to go to the store, you’re just not taking this stay at home order seriously! Why do you want people to die you selfish rube?

Most people have been good sports. They’ve played along, they stayed home, but the little tyrants saw it as a license to tighten the screws and assert even more authority over the lives of others. It would seem we basement dwellers have had enough, and now, protests are going on in multiple states. At some point, this whole thing stopped being about a pandemic, a virus, a cough, or a sneeze and turned into a test as to how far you can push a populace before they’ve had enough. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.