London, 1802; America, 2022

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 1/1/22

            Two hundred twenty years ago English poet William Wordsworth, who was by no means a Puritan, took pen in hand and called on the great, deceased Puritan poet, John Milton. “Milton! Thou should’st be living at this hour / England hath need of thee,” Wordsworth wrote.

            In one of his most famous sonnets, “London 1802,” Wordsworth made explicit his distress over conditions in England and all of Europe at the opening of the 19^th century. A lover of France, he was saddened that, unlike the American Revolution, the French Revolution was not successful. Indeed, Napolean was elected Consul for Life in 1802. Wordsworth was grieved by what he considered “England’s betrayal of her heritage of freedom and virtue.”

             Milton is most remembered for his classic epics, “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained.” Knowing of Milton’s high reputation, Wordsworth invoked the famous Puritan to make his point about England’s social, moral, and political climate. Not a religious man, Wordsworth still saw in Milton a strength of character that England needed.

             Patrick Henry and Jefferson and Reagan, thou should’st be living at this hour. America hath need of thee! Like Patrick Henry, I would rather be sick and free than be healthy and not free. Oh, but the Covid “crisis” has not come to such an extreme choice, you say. Yes, it has. Seems to me things are getting fishier and fishier. No matter how many cities are ravaged with violent destruction, no matter if crime statistics have shot through the roof, and no matter if the most powerful nation in the world has fled like a scared rabbit from its enemy, our president and his trusty bureaucrats continue trying to turn our minds to anything but. Even though the covid variants are real, I suspect we all know when the fear-mongering will end: well before the November election.         

Cynicism? Look, 340,000,000 citizens, 814,000 deaths. That’s .0023 % of the population, every death of which is sad beyond measure. It’s true that a pandemic covers the globe, but numbers and words often become weapons in the hands of those who need a weapon to sway people’s minds. Inside the USA, Covid has not brought death to a large number. Stating this cold fact can increase the grief of those who have lost loved ones to Covid, yet facts are facts and life can be made easier when we acknowledge them.  Covid has unnecessarily brought the limitation of freedom. Lost freedom is always difficult to regain. So are devastated livelihoods.

            My own four-week bout with Covid and the two-week wind-down that followed were as awful as the aftermath of open heart surgery five years before: incessant pain, total fatigue, and unfamiliar loneliness. My salvation was a stalwart wife, wondrous doctors and nurses, and the grace of God. I’m thankful to be alive. But my little story is miniscule compared to the many accounts of lost livelihoods and freedoms, lost because a virus has been politicized.  Compare the stats of Florida and Texas to those of New York and New Jersey. Population density differences of the south and north aside, the lockdowns in the north have devastated far more livelihoods than have the more relaxed policies in the south.  The differences between how these two southern states and the two northern states have handled lockdowns is instructive. The condescending, moral superiority of those who criticize non-vaxers is repugnant.

            Which brings us to Henry, Jefferson, and Reagan. As everyone knows, Patrick Henry thundered, “Give me liberty or give me death.” His speeches in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the life he lived show that he meant it. Jefferson said, “Law is often nothing more than the tyrant’s will and is always so when it violates the rights of an individual.” Jefferson abhorred the lingering tyranny in Europe and wished to keep it out of America. Reagan said, “Government is not the solution to our problems; it’s the cause of most of them.” This happy warrior repeated this theme in every speech he delivered.

             “Altar, sword, pen, and fireside,” (the pulpit, the government, the press, the home), wrote Wordsworth, are letting England down. So are our institutions today letting America down. Politicized pulpits, unelected bureaucracy, a sold out press, and weakened homes have rendered the nation “bereft of inward happiness.”

 Intrusive government is bringing America down far, far from the Jeffersonian ideal. We need a second opinion on Covid and its management but we’re not getting it. For instance, the 50,000 plus distinguished signers (doctors, epidemiologists, virologists, citizens) of the Great Barrington Declaration are still being ignored. Something’s fishy. What’s really scary is the acquiescence (and moral superiority) of those who swallow every word Dr. Fauci utters.

Wordsworth, America hath need of thee as well.

Roger Hines

12/23/21