Man
Cannot Live by Experts Alone
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 5/24/20
I
submit that neither our government’s policy nor the news media’s coronavirus
coverage shows enough concern the financial hardship and the emotional distress
that small business owners are experiencing. Nor has enough attention centered
on the plight of the 36.5 million who have lost their jobs, thanks to the
nation’s shutdown.
So
far what has been emphasized night and day is the number of cases and deaths,
both of which are low compared to population.
The
small business owner is the sacrificial lamb in our intentional crisis. My
heart goes out to the countless young adult married couples who were brave
enough, self-confident enough, and trustful enough of America’s free enterprise
system to start a small bakery, a fitness business, or a restaurant. Let’s say
their dream was to work for themselves and teach their children what
entrepreneurship and hard work are all about. Let’s say they’ve been in business
for four or five years and were beginning to see their dream fulfilled.
But
now that dream is dashed. More importantly their sole income has been stopped
in its tracks. By design. Their employees are laid off and there appear to be
no prospects for starting over. Financially and emotionally what state of mind
do you suppose our young couples are in?
Texas
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick was ridiculed recently for saying he was willing to die
so that younger adults could survive economically. I watched two
multi-millionaire television commentators mock Patrick though he clearly was
not playing the martyr.
“I’m
not being noble and brave. I just believe there are lots of grandparents like
me who care more about the country and our grandchildren than anything else,”
Patrick stated.
Understandably,
in our free society response to the crisis has created two sides, those who cry,
“Follow the science and the experts,” and those who simply plead for common
sense and the personal liberty to make their own decisions. Slavish proponents of the experts believe the
medical technocrats should call the shots. The common sense proponents see the
dangers of overreach. They acknowledge that unelected experts can help but that
they should not replace our duly elected leaders. To them bureaucratic tyranny
is as onerous as any other.
Citizens
who insist we blindly follow the science should recall that some scientists,
including the good Dr. Fauci, at first asserted that the coronavirus would
probably not spread around the globe. Duke University researcher Dr. Wang Linfa
in late January said the same thing. His words were, “I have a gut feeling it
won’t spread.”
Ah!
So scientists do have gut feelings. Nice to know.
The
crisis has pretty much paralleled the Trump/anti-Trump divide. Deplorables –
the faceless, hardworking Americans, ordinary folks – are anxious, actually
desperate to open up the economy. Their pantries are emptying. The elites – the
experts, media stars, totally comfortable retirees, stubborn governors – are
holding out for safety. They haven’t been hurt. Columnist Peggy Noonan put it
best: “The working-class people who are pushing back have had harder lives than
those now determining their fate.”
Design
is destiny, and the present design is supposedly to let so-called science lead the
way. But science has always held both beauty and terror. Re-read
“Frankenstein.” In that famous novel a smart doctor created a man, but things
didn’t turn out too well. What he got was a monster. Our monster today is a
created, wrecked economy. A wrecked economy means young and old alike are
suffering, especially those in the nation’s lower-income households. According
to the Wall Street Journal, almost 40% of households earning less than $40,000
experienced a job loss in March versus 19% of households earning between
$40,000 and $100,000.
Our
political divide has deepened. To me
it’s obvious that Democrats – ok, some Democrats, or certain Democrat leaders –
are doing all they can to prolong the shutdown in order to decrease the chances
of President Trump getting re-elected.
There is even a medical profession divide, but
who would know? The media isn’t broadcasting it, but some medical experts
disagree with Dr. Fauci. Dr. Knut
Wittkowski, former head of epidemiology at Rockefeller University is one. Wittkowski
has stated that social distancing prolongs the virus’s existence. “Without
distancing,” the virus would have “created herd immunity,” he argues. In effect,
the media has told Wittkowski to hush.
Given
the medical profession’s divide, perhaps when someone says, “Trust science,” we
should reply, “Whose science?”
I’m
with Governor Mike Huckabee: “No elected official who orders a lockdown should
get a paycheck as long as we’re shut down.”
The
nation needs to get to work. Now.
Roger Hines
5/20/20