Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

When 'liberty' endangers the 'rights' of others

First, let me say, I am not writing this to change anyone’s mind. I am writing it to express my disdain for the outright abuse of the words many Americans like me cherish.

"We are guaranteed the right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ and this is my life, liberty and pursuit of happiness,” according to an Escondido coffee shop owner who said he intended to keep his business open, as usual, despite lockdown orders from the county and the state.

Considering those lockdown restrictions were put in place to protect people from being exposed to a proven deadly virus ravaging our communities, one has to ask the question: At what point do your “rights” end when they begin to infringe on the “rights” of others?

It is a difficult question to ponder, and we have become a nation of catchphrases that uses bumper sticker logic to express ourselves. Add in a heavy dose of social media misquote sharing and memes – oh, don’t get me started on the memes.

My age group, and the groups behind me, are the most marketed to groups in the history of the world. That’s why we love a good quick quote. Many seek out a simply worded explanation for an opinion they already have but lack the energy or devotion to expressing it in their own words.

Many take snippets of wisdom from here or there and adhere them to their existing confirmation bias. It’s easier, simpler … cuter on a Facebook post.

But using such catchphrases lacks depth, conviction, origin of thought and effort to see more than 3 inches beyond the end of our nose.

There has to be more depth to us than what’s on display currently.

To explain my issue with the usage of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the way this man used it, translating it as such: “I don’t care what happens to my customers; I need to make money.”

Well, let’s go down that road.

Let’s pretend a coffee shop owner decided, “Hey, I need to make more money, I am going to start serving alcohol in my coffee.” And then he starts offering his boozy coffee to children.

Hey, why not? Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, after all. Whatever floats your boat, right?

Would we, as a society, not push back against that kind of pursuit of liberty? Have we not already?

Are we allowed to happily drive drunk down the promenade, side-swiping vehicles and picking off pedestrians with our bumpers? Are those lives less important than the one drunkenly behind the wheel?

Or have we thought that perhaps that sort of pursuit of happiness is too irresponsible for our communities and we make laws in order to punish those that engage and dissuade those from embarking on such behavior.

We stand up to the selfish and destructive members of society and place restrictions on them.

And here we are complaining about local restaurants being forced to close because, after publicly and loudly declaring they were going to remain open while citing “freedom,” the state cracked down on them for continuing to endanger the lives of their customers.

It’s one thing to be irresponsible and break the rules in place to protect the community, it’s another thing entirely to publicly post statements on social media.

That’s like burglarizing your neighbor’s house and leaving a note on the front door saying you did it – and you’ll do it again tomorrow night.

Last week, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, which is loath to get involved in anything COVID-19 related for fear of seeming politically motivated – see Chad Bianco – informed the public that it is, in fact, illegal to fire bullets into the air as an expression of freedom.

You may ask yourself why would firing a gun into the air be illegal? Freedom.

Gravity. Gravity is the reason.

But it makes you wonder, in that split second before one of our community members walks outside and aims their gun into the sky, would they stop and think about where that bullet might land?

Or is the frothing for freedom too great? Is that pursuit of liberty so overwhelmingly driving that they can’t think beyond the yank of the trigger?

Is the freedom to pull the trigger for freedom too powerful for them to resist taking the chance of killing an innocent bystander with a stray bullet?

Who has these feelings?

Do these people wander through a Best Buy and pull stuff off the shelves, walking out of the building with brand-new big screens, screaming, “Give me liberty or give me death!?”

I am betting they aren’t those people.

I think these are people so caught up in the catchphrases, so fueled by false equivalencies to dictatorships and tyrannies that they bow to the power of their confirmation bias and lash out.

They take money from people while putting them and their family members at risk. They fire guns into the air and endanger their neighbors.

The bastardization of the words “freedom” and “liberty” is now used to explain away selfishness and indulgence.

And that’s wrong.

Here, I will make my point in a catchphrase: “Liberty, freedom and rights come with responsibility.”

They aren’t an excuse to hurt others for fun.

Jeff Pack

Temecula

 

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