Liberty Lost During Covid-19

Image credit:
Ammo.com

This guest article features a high school student from New York. Her bio is at the end. She sent it over Twitter, and I asked her if she'd be interested in writing this as a guest article for Young Patriot Rising, which she agreed to. Hope you like reading her article!

We all have lost a lot since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Over 2 million people have died from the novel coronavirus worldwide. Millions of small businesses have been destroyed by it. According to the National Restaurant Association, as of December 7th, 2020, 17% of all restaurants in the United States have closed permanently. The CDC has said that one in 4 young adults have struggled with suicidal thoughts since Covid hit. Teenage suicides have accelerated due to school closures. All of these effects are tragic and unforgivable. However, there is an additional loss that we have all suffered yet only half of us seem to realize. Freedom. As President John Adams once said, “Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” This could not be more true now. 

We were told last March “15 days to slow the spread.” We are now on day 344 with no end in sight. Oh, lockdowns are lightening up? Say hello to mask mandates! Oooh, masks? Welcome to social distancing. We finally have a vaccine? Well, masking and social distancing must continue. When will everyone wake up and realize that what is occurring is completely Orwellian? 35 states have made it illegal to breathe fresh air. We have been told for a year that we aren’t allowed to see our families. Governors have started limiting how many people you can have in your own house. President Biden is now considering banning domestic travel to certain states. I thought this was America. Since when can one person dictate your every move? You are screamed at and shamed if you dare to stand close to someone. I have never seen such a constitutional crisis. These conditions are completely dehumanizing.

And for what? Covid-19 has a survival rate of 99.7% and primarily affects the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. That is not the majority of the population, and we should be thankful for that. Our basic liberties have been completely trampled and I fear we will never get them back unless people wake up and grow a spine. I am beyond disgusted with how public schools have responded to this pandemic. Some will not open, and a lot of the ones who have are miserable environments. Those running the schools are total shills for the government who clearly do not care about their students. How they sleep at night after muzzling children and enforcing the most Orwellian, draconian and dehumanizing policy of social distancing is beyond me. We are KIDS. We are social creatures. And these teachers drunk with power do not even hesitate to SCREAM at us to separate over a virus that we do not have and face very little threat from. I miss being able to be a human at school. It was fun. I miss being allowed to actually see my friend’s smiling faces. I’m sick of my rights being stripped away by these tyrants and have no one stand up for us. 

I understand that Covid can be deadly, but everyone needs to realize what is happening. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said “The antithesis of liberty is government power. Liberty is worth the fight.” He is absolutely correct. The founding fathers must be rolling over in their graves seeing the freedom they risked their lives to achieve be ripped apart. President John Adams said “You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.” How anyone can look at our current world and not feel like we betrayed his wish is astounding. I’m sick of hearing “It’s a pandemic. Don’t you wanna save lives?” Yes, of course I do, but never in history have we quarantined an entire planet because of an illness. This time, with a disease that the overwhelming amount of people survive, life has been put completely on hold. It is a complete obstruction of freedom, and it should no longer be tolerated. As President John Tyler wisely said, “I can never consent to being dictated to.” No one should consent to being dictated to, whether there is a pandemic or not.

Biography:

My name is Hayley. I am 16 years old and I am from New York. I am a conservative high school student who is an aspiring writer. Thank you for reading my article!