Now that California has passed a quasi-marshal law shutdown, we in Summit County, Colorado have to be extra wary of allowing our liberal local and state governments to follow such a destructive path. We are in a severe public health threat and precautions are necessary. But the governments’ excessive over-reach puts us on a slippery slope.
We should not tolerate local and state governments to expand command and control over our personal freedoms. In stark contrast to the U.S. Constitution, the statist elites have taken it upon themselves to restrict our movements, shut down our businesses and make us more dependent on their central planning largesse. The numbers don’t add up and the medicine may kill the patient.
There are solutions that will put people back to work that don’t include the draconian measures recently taken across Summit County and Colorado: Keep businesses open part-time with take-out service, outside delivery decks and voluntary closures rather than complete shutdown. Conduct school classes remotely and provide day care and meals to needy students in quarantine settings. Have federally guaranteed funds sent to the states to provide short-term loans, not free grants, to individuals and businesses negatively impacted by the virus to be paid back out of tax refunds in August when taxes are now due.
We cannot emotionally or financially afford to have our freedoms arbitrarily usurped. We need to be very careful that temporary government solutions don’t permanently encroach upon individual liberty. Let people have as much personal freedom as possible to social distance, work from home and conduct their daily lives with common sense and compassion for their fellow citizens. I trust God, our medical professionals and the people of Colorado to do the right thing.