Western North Carolina – I’ve tried to avoid this topic as long as possible because it is so divisive. I’d rather write about things I think could unite us rather than a subject sure to divide us. However, it’s hard to ignore this one, so here goes and as always, I certainly invite any rebuttal letter to the editor.
Biden’s Promises
Before he was elected, President Joe Biden said that there would be no vaccination mandate. Since then, Biden has done a 180 and now says that vaccines are required if you work for a company with more than 100 employees. If you refuse, you lose your job.
Where to start with this type of mandate? The unconstitutionality of it, the medical indifference of it, the authoritarianism of the government, shall I go on?
Let’s begin where the courts started. On Nov. 6, CNET reported, “a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a temporary stay after several states, including Louisiana and Texas, joined with religious and advocacy organizations and a group of businesses to file a petition Friday for a permanent injunction against the rule.” Since then, CNBC on Nov. 13 reported, “A federal appeals court has called President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses ‘fatally flawed’ and ‘staggeringly overbroad,’ arguing that the requirements likely exceed the authority of the federal government and raise ‘serious constitutional concerns.’
“The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in an opinion issued Friday evening, reaffirmed its decision to press pause on the implementation of the requirements, in another sign that they may not survive judicial scrutiny.”
Infriging Personal Liberties
To me, the government has no business dictating individuals or companies how to take care of their employees’ health. Those in D.C. are using the Occupation Health and Safety Administration to try and mandate that employers must be overburdened with testing or firing unvaccinated employees at any time. This is especially tone-deaf when there is a shortage in the labor market—these mandates are sure to cripple the economy more.
Which brings up another issue: if the government has the authority to make such a mandate, why don’t they mandate everyone on some type of government assistance get the vaccine to keep their aid? Why is Biden just targeting people who are working? Now, I’m not in favor of the government doing this. I’m just trying to make sense out of something that makes no sense.
Not One-Size-Fits-All
Next, what about people with natural immunity? People who’ve had COVID and now have the antibodies? People whose bodies don’t react well to vaccinations? How can the government say one size fits all? Sounds communist to me. It sounds like the government wants to treat us, not as individuals but as a collective, not as citizens, but as subjects.
Is this what Alexander Hamilton meant when he said in The Federalist Papers, “If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify,”?
It’s not for me to say. I do feel safe in saying if you feel like the vaccine is for you, take it and if you don’t, don’t. Isn’t that what freedom is all about? I will say this, it’s a sad day when the government tells businesses of any size that their employees must be vaccinated or tested. It leaves employees to choose between a jab or a job.