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Covid-19, Thoughts

COVID-19, THOUGHTS

(April 1, 2020)

Yes, we are all “shut down” and “quarantined” in our respective homes. Only jobs deemed “essential” have employees showing up to work. Healthcare people, law enforcement personnel, transportation staff, sanitation employees, and a few more. Some may be tempted to despair during this season of challenge, illness and death.

Current models show that as many as a million or many more will die without taking preventive measures. With preventive measures (mitigation), there could still be 100,000 or more deaths. This dynamic situation is just what models show us as of 3/31/2020 (Presidential briefing). That will likely change daily as more data is fed into the models. Models are what is or is not fed into them, and must be given value accordingly.

“In all the world around me I see His loving care.” (He Lives, www.hymnal.net/hymn)

There are so many predictable reactions to something like this. “It’s nothing!”

“It’s the apocalypse!”

“It was deliberate by China!”

“It was the US Army!”

I must observe that despite all the wearying troubles facing humans, war and pestilence, a wide variety of reactions are predicable. Which reaction is best? Yes, in even the best-case scenario, we will grow weary and experience trouble, fatigue and even death, we can overcome despair! We must see victory over despair!

“And though my heart grows weary I never will despair.” (He Lives, www.hymnal.net/hymn)

In listening to Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York State, at first, I thought he was making more sense than usual. Then I noticed he complained a lot that the Federal government wasn’t performing to his expectation, all the while asking the Feds to do more and more. But lately, on 3/31/2020, I notice he is making noises about doing away with private health care. I think or wonder if I see his modus operandi. He has been angling all along for more central planning and provisioning of society. Human leaders are prone to this temptation, understandably. They will want to be more effective at everything the are responsible for.

But I think once duty has been done, we must trust the leading of the divine. Faith has its place. While we think we are wise, we are even then using the gifts we received at birth and developed from experience after birth. We follow the path God has laid for us. “It’s not the gale, but the set of the sail that determines the way our ship will go.” As we follow Him, we ought to say humbly,

“I know that He is leading, through all the stormy blast. ((He Lives, www.hymnal.net/hymn)

History holds claim to hope! We have dealt with Polio, Tuberculosis, Measles and much more.

What permanent changes will result for our society? Will the handshake go away? Will vote by mail become more attractive? Will hugs as a form of greeting or parting be less practiced? Will families see togetherness as a value or will the experience be a negative for them? Will work from home be even more widely practiced? Will Telehealth doctor visits be more highly used? Will “social distancing” be universally practiced even in the absence of a pandemic? Will governments increase surveillance of citizens in order to utilize contact tracking? (Contract tracking is used to detail the movement of a virus victim in order to see where his infection was caught.)

What I do believe is this: God lives and will bring His lessons to people who are willing to listen and see what He has done among us all.

“The day of His appearing will come at last.”  ((He Lives, www.hymnal.net/hymn)

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The Individual Sovereign

“A well regulated militia being necessary to security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The power to bring death is the assurance of individual sovereignty. The ability to control that power is what makes civility. From hunting food, to defending self, family and community, the ability and skills necessary to kill provide an individual not only with the means to survive, but to thrive and make decisions about polity within the civil society.

Without the power of death, the individual is not really sovereign at all. With that, the individual is vested with a great deal of responsibility to be ethical, morally guided by strong principles to protect his family and community. How can I be assured that my choices are honored if I have not the power to threaten, to depose tyrants, if I have not the power they have assumed to themselves?

Yet, if I abuse that power, I do not deserve that power. In essence this is the definition of crime. Killing and murdering are two distinct things, though the act may look very similar. It is the individual abuse of powers vested in the individual by natural law. The right must be exercised only for defensive or survival purposes, or be lost. The community being threatened by such abuse, now has the responsibility to remove the sovereignty from such an individual. Indeed, one who demonstrates inability to control power over life and death, must not be allowed to have that power any longer.

This is also why those who have demonstrated no disposition to crime, be vested with the right, the authority to keep and to bear arms. This right must not be infringed lest it be lost. It is the responsible person who is the “well regulated.” The mature man, free and strong must protect these values from his position of strength, his position of having the power of lethality. For if the responsible person is infringed upon, then he is vulnerable to the unscrupulous, victim to the irresponsible, and eviscerated by any who abuses the power over life and death, be it scoundrel or force of government. But if he remains free, without infringement, then he can protect and preserve and encourage the civil society.

Choosing to participate in the civil society is an act of the individual sovereign. It is an act of one with the power over life and death. But if that participation is to remain in force, there is the need to freely, but responsibly exercise the use of deadly force. Herein lies the rub with modern society in the United States. It is as though the individual no longer has the choice of participation. This is the offense of “political correctness.” I may not agree with the apparent choices presented by pop culture or media or government. My choices are not honored in the social contract. My choices not being honored, how then am I to remain sovereign?

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, …” (Declaration of Independence).
I do not know whether this necessity has come upon us just yet. Yet! Yet, it seems to fast approach! The time has certainly come to declare the causes which impel us toward possible separation. I’ll keep that for later.

First, to address our options. The second amendment must stand unfettered. I mean all the current infringements operating against it must fall down. Spurious laws infringing it must be repealed. The arguments as to which those are will be too many to cover here, but to suffice it to say, the federal government has become too powerful when it blocks us from enjoying the freedoms of natural law.

The second option is to exercise the 5th article of the constitution. This means the states must regain their original powers of censure over the federal government. A convention of the states may bring amendments, or repeal amendments as seen fit to reduce the power of the federal government from this posture of threatening both individual sovereignty and state sovereignty.

Simply voting is not an option, unless preceded by a massive spiritual awakening, thereby voting in the properly moral people to offices across the land. The federal government is currently operating out of sync with the people. Expecting the federal government to reform itself is laughable at this point.

If the United States of America is to thrive on, individual sovereignty must be addressed at all levels. The rights of the individual have been abrogated at nearly all levels. Currently, across the nation, anti second amendment forces are gathering momentum to infringe upon this most sacred and powerful authority granted to individuals by natural law. The more they succeed, the closer we are driven to the inevitable, the collapse of the civil society, the fall of the social contract, that course of human events in which we must chart a new course. In that course, we will “…appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions.” (Declaration of Independence). For it is with our individual sovereignty that we must forge ahead.