If we don’t reopen economy soon, it will be time for civil disobedience | Letter to the editor

The initial reasoning behind government mandated closures was to minimize the stress on our infrastructure and healthcare systems that a highly contagious and potentially lethal disease might bring.

However, as more information has become available, and hospital beds and other resources are nowhere near capacity, lawmakers and officials have strayed far from this thesis, and have over extended authority in a manner that has served to test the waters for how much power a governing body can exercise over its constituents.

Elected officials and advisors now cautiously ask the question, “How many people will die if we allow restaurants to serve diners on premise, parks, beaches, and gyms to once again allow people to exercise, and people to return to their livelihoods and passions?”

Imagine if they asked, “How many people will die if we allow cars on the road, people to ride motorcycles, eat fried food, consume alcohol and tobacco? But society does not allow for a government to ban vehicles, foods, or substances.

There will always be a cost-benefit analysis to every decision we make and every person must determine their own risk tolerance. This virus carves the path for any issue, substance or otherwise deemed threat, whether innocuous or not, to be a catalyst for violations of our once inalienable rights.

We can not let the cure be worse than the disease.

The economy must be re-opened now. If it is not, it is the duty of the business owners and patrons alike suppressed of their civil rights to practice civil disobedience, not unlike Rosa Parks, and commence commerce. High risk individuals would not be forced to do anything and could still take precautions, without impeding on low risk individual’s rights.

Let government guide and support, and let the market mandate.

Wade Swikle

Bradenton