As we begin the third year of the #Covid-19 pandemic we continue to face the problem of getting consistent and believable information to the public. To start, I’m fully vaccinated and wear a mask when in a crowd. I do not do this because the government says so, but because it is the prudent thing to do. How do I react to those who choose not to? I don’t. It is, in my opinion, personal preference. Wearing a mask does not protect others, it will only protect you from becoming infected, same for the #vaccination. I’m not sure how effective the vaccine is but at the least it should be considered chicken soup, couldn’t hurt.

Getting to the root cause of those who do not wish to wear masks or get vaccinated is a little difficult. Coming as no surprise to anyone the American people are becoming more divided, and it would appear the middle is shrinking as the extremes get further apart.  How this is manifesting itself is that on the one side we see a belief that the central government should be in control of all things and everybody. It is this collectivist concept that see the need for mandates. On the other side we see a hatred of the central government and suspicion of any regulations that come out of it.

The first, driven by a recent philosophy that, for lack of a better term, has sprung from the concept of socialism. This belief has been inculcated into the system by academics and mass media. The second goes back to enlightenment philosophy of the individual as the center of power. The United States was founded on the second.

The desire to force the population to bend to one way of thinking is opposed by the desire to resist a central control. While both sides have legitimate arguments, both sides have staked out extreme positions and have dug in. On the extremes we have “Do as your told our we are all going to die,” vs “Statistically, I have little chance of dyeing so why chance what I think is a dangerous alternative.”

There was a time that there could be discussion and compromise. Today however all we have is emotion and anger. Let’s try and return to a time of logic and reason. PleaseTHINK how your actions affect others and use facts to make critical decisions.