In Their Own Eyes

A recent article in my local newspaper, The Grand Rapids Press, tells of a group of mothers concerned about schools. Mask and vaccination mandates, Mothers for America Action claim, are knee-jerk reactions of a government that just wants to control us and turn us into socialists.

Does that first paragraph sound facetious? It's not. That's the gist of the article.

The reporter does not ask the mothers, or us, if speed limits in school zones are knee-jerk reactions by government. I'm not sure why not. The intent is the same. If your children are careful crossing the street, it is unlikely that a car will hit them even if it is going 80 mph. So clearly there is no need for any government to put their nose in this business. That it provides extra safety is not worth the cost of our convenience.

"This is about freedom," says Kimberly Fletcher, president of the group.

It seems that what Fletcher's group wants is the right to do as they please, and consequences be damned. They want to teach their children to do what they want whether or not it could hurt others, and if teachers and schools have other ideas they should be boycotted. They want to do what is right in their own eyes. And the eyes, and lungs, of other people are of little concern.

This, they might say, is Biblical. In the time of Old Testament judges, people repeatedly did what was right in their own eyes. (One doesn't get the impression from the telling that it was a good thing.)

The mothers group is concerned about more than measures to reduce the spread of COVID. Fletcher warns, "The public school system has turned into nothing more than a re-education camp for Marxist indoctrination." Back when I was in school, we were not introduced to economic and political theories even at the high-school level. Apparently, Fletcher has evidence that this is now all they teach.

I doubt Fletcher knows one economic theory from another, and she may not really care. Marxism here seems a stand-in for anything that extends beyond an individual. My freedom to put you at risk shall not be infringed.

Some of us support free-market capitalism because we think it improves life not only for the capitalists themselves but for all of us. It plays a part in promoting "the general Welfare" of the people, as our Constitution advocates. For the same reason, we encourage laws that prevent capitalists, and other citizens, from abusing their rights. Now we hear that this is wrong-headed. The point of laissez-faire is that you keep your paws off of my personal preferences regardless of how they affect others.

 The common good is now—to a group of mothers, no less—an evil.

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Here's a thread everyone should read: Vaccine mandates are precisely why we no longer have smallpox. There were nutters back then too.

Vaccines are not “personal freedoms.” They are the price of living in a civil society. The Supreme Court decided on this more than a century ago.