'Liberty' isn't a license for self-interest

The United States’ fundamental founding document, the Declaration of Independence, offers a clear definition of freedom, though that word is never mentioned.

One well-known part is getting well-worn these days among fringe voices of self-interest. “Certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Those freedoms – enshrined in our national and state constitutions – were reinforced by the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

While our nation and state’s founding documents discuss the blessings of freedom, it does not embolden or legitimize pure self-interest.

Liberty to do something that puts others at risk is not freedom. 

 Taking the liberty to choose to do something that serves and protects others expands the freedoms individuals enjoy to an entire community.

 Laws are there to make civil society work. They elevate cooperation and generosity when purely personal interest threatens the community’s health and welfare. This principle is known as the rule of law.  One of our nation’s founders, John Adams, said as much when drafting the Massachusetts Constitution: “to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.”

It is out of concerns for public health – especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic -- that prompt mandates for safety mask wearing and requirements for vaccinations. Beyond the legitimate reasons of the relatively very few who have specific personal health or religious concerns, these regulations are about the good of the community. Those who oppose them are, quite frankly seeking to legitimize their own self-interest – for personal reasons or to exploit political divisiveness.

Those who cry “freedom” in their refusal to wear a safety mask are, in fact, denying freedom to those, for example people who have suppressed immunities or are otherwise vulnerable, who truly are not able to take or benefit from more widely available safety measures.

To understand the consequences of this kind of self-interest, visit a hospital – particularly in a rural community. The facilities are overwhelmed. Emergency rooms are jammed and urgent treatment delayed.  Hospital rooms are filled with the overflow in hallways, lying on gurneys.  Care workers – doctors, nurses and other critical staff are overworked and stressed.  For nearly two years they have performed heroically.  They deserve our praise -- and more so our cooperation that would ease their burden.

Statewide, 84% of the staffed intensive-care hospital beds are filled and 80% of all staffed hospital beds are full.

Imagine, if at the outset of the pandemic two years ago (the first coronavirus diagnosis in North Carolina came on March 3, 2020) Republicans had not made public health a "liberty" issue and over 80% of the nation had gotten vaccinated?

How many deaths resulted from "liberty"? Would we still be wrestling with death tolls that exceeds 22,290 statewide and just shy of 1 million nationally?

Instead, too many of our leaders pandered to the self-serving few, declaring the virus would just disappear. “Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away,” former President Donald Trump said on Feb. 10, 2020. Others, like state Senate leader Phil Berger’s staff likened the risks to eating raw cookie dough.

About three-quarters of those who had died from COVID are 65 or older. Maybe the calculation is that most of these are expendable senior citizens. Who cares?  Just weed out the elderly and weak?

Is there anyone who can’t say they’ve been personally touched by the pandemic? The loss of a loved-one, co-worker or close friend? No one has escaped this.

In America freedoms exist – and are enshrined in our laws -- to uplift communities. They are not licenses for self-interest or leaving others neglected and vulnerable .