The Long Version

Yesterday, April 17^th, I went to the Liberate Minnesota protest at Governor Walz mansion.

There were easily 2,000 people there with one message, “Open up Minnesota!”

I live streamed on social media and posted pictures.

Frequent questions and statements on social media were:

 Why? The Governor told us to stay home, where was your social distance? Why were there no masks?

Your going to get other people sick. I hope you idiots get sick and die.

I gave a few short answers, with many typos from my cell phone.

Here’s the long version.

We will agree a terrible disease is infecting many of our fellow citizens. We all want it to stop. There are varying ideas on how to do that. The Government good or bad has a lot of control over the response. That is where many of us part ways.

In my State of Minnesota, like many others, the Governor, by Executive Order, closed what he deemed non-essential businesses. The reason originally given by Governor Walz was to “flatten the curve,” the spike of the infection rate of the virus. We were told this was necessary to keep the hospitals from being over run and untreated citizens dying in hallways.

Projections by the  ‘experts’ put the infected in the millions, and deaths in tens of thousands in Minnesota, with social distancing and even more dire without. Numbers by the experts turned out nationally to be over blown by 400%!

So businesses closed and about 20% of Minnesotans were suddenly unemployed. The ripple effect is only beginning to become apparent.

But looking at the actual numbers from Minnesota’s own Department of Health tells a different story.

No one knows the actual amount who had and recovered from the virus because most are believed to be asymptomatic.

So I will use the ‘known’ numbers, which are still not quite accurate because many of the dead listed as dying from the virus were never tested, but only had symptoms consistent with it, or died of something else but were found to also have had the virus, so that was listed as the cause whether it was or not.

The numbers from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) website the morning of April 17 , 2020 were, 475 hospitalized (half now released home) and 94 deaths from the Corona Virus. 

The same MDH website listed that 4,033 had been hospitalized for influenza with 148 deaths. Minnesota has 5.6 million people.

Our hospitals are not overwhelmed. As a matter of fact Minnesota Hospitals are running at 40% capacity. Thousands of nurses have been laid off.

So now I get to the cure which seems worse than the disease part.

The Governor by Executive Order, closed businesses he deemed non-essential. This action will destroy the lives of Minnesotan’s more than the virus. Unemployment, unlike the virus, has known consequences. Poverty, depression, suicide, domestic violence, homelessness, increased crime and incarceration.

I understand the given reason, now here’s the law based on the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States. Let me state the Bill of Rights doesn’t give you rights, it outlines the natural rights you possess that the Government cannot take away. It limits what the government can do to you. When the government oversteps those bounds it’s called Tyranny.

I’ll start with the 5^th Amendment. It contains what is known as the takings clause.

“No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”

Income has been deemed by law to be property. The Government ordering business closed is deprivation of property to both the business owner and the employee. Where was the due process? Anyone?

What is ‘just compensation?” For some laid off employees the State thinks it’s an unemployment check.

That may be fine if you are an hourly employee. But what if you are a waiter or waitress and most of your income is in tips? What if you are an independent contractor and are a 1099 employee?

Is it a $1,200 check after a month of lost wages?

The reality is many small businesses may be lost and the jobs they provide, never to return. The government has picked winners and losers. The losers will never receive “just compensation.” The employees will remain unemployed after the crisis.

My Cigar shop is closed, but my liquor store open. Is my cigar shop incapable of wiping off the counter and having people stand six feet apart? The Governor thinks so, so that business must die. The lease is still due, utilities still have to be paid, business insurance is still due and maybe health insurance premiums of it’s handful of employees. How long can that last?

Businesses MOST affected will be small, not large corporate ones. A small record shop on Snelling Avenue will be ordered closed, but the large Target or Walmart, deemed essential will continue to sell music. Taco Bell is considered essential, but the sit down restaurant  will die.

The small sole proprietor hair salon will slowly die, the large corporate ones with big pockets will make it through. I could go on and on.

"But we need to limit contact to flatten the curve." Seems logical, OK, but we will all go to the same grocery stores, gas stations and are handed our Taco Bell by the same employee. As my wife told me, it's like having a peeing and no peeing section in a swimming pool.

At the end of the day the Government had the right to make recommendations for safety, but no right to take that property.  

Now on to the big dog, the First Amendment.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and other religious Temples were ORDERED either closed or told to limit the amount of people allowed in. In some States Pastors were arrested, parishioners listening to a sermon safely in their cars were given $500 tickets and 15 members of a Synagogue were arrested last week in New Jersey for violating the Governors order.

News flash, the Government is prohibited from interfering with  the free exercise of religion. Period. Those people have the right to peaceably assemble and worship as they choose. That protection is listed even before freedom of speech in the First Amendment. It’s a line the Government cannot cross, but did.

So on April 17^th around 2,000 of us freely assembled at Governor Walz Mansion and voiced our opposition and demanded a redress of grievances.

There were many signs there that reflected slogans we’ve all heard over the years such as, “My body, my health.”  Which leads me to the next issue, the goal post that moved.

Initially Gov. Walz said the shutdown was necessary to “flatten the curve.” That has been done. Now it’s, "we need to test everyone and we will give a slip of paper to those who are clear and can go back to work." What Orwellian/communist hell is that? I need papers from the Government to work? I must see a doctor first to work, sick or no? Oh, and your Covid 19 status will be shared with law enforcement in case they have to deal with you. In violation of existing HIPPA Laws.

I could go on for days.

So here is the shorter version. The Government has no right to close your business, no right to lock the healthy in their homes in case you may be sick, no right to close your place of worship  and no right to tell your doctor how to treat you (some States have).

This country has had, and will have disease run rampant through it. The American Revolution was fought during a Small Pox epidemic.

Those of us standing at the Governors mansion were not being selfish, we were asserting everyone’s rights.

Back to the initial questions in this post.

Why? Our rights. 

The Governor told us to stay home, where was your social distance? Why were there no masks?

The vulnerable and sick should stay home, voluntarily. It’s not up to the healthy to be quarantined for them.  If someone is diagnosed as sick it is legal to order them to stay home, but not ‘in case you may be.’ Gloves, masks and social distance can be recommended, not ordered.

You’re going to get other people sick. I hope you idiots get sick and die.

I am responsible for my own health, and you yours. If you want to wear a mask and gloves have at it. Does the government order you to wear a condom or only recommend?

Looking at the actual numbers, the amount of sick per capita is low and the fatalities related to this even lower.

We can differ on the way to react to this, Sweden and South Dakota have chosen not to lock down with results no worse or better than States and countries that did.

I suspect our courts will be clogged for years with lawsuits stemming from this.

During WWII the Government thought it a good idea to take the property and businesses of Japanese Americans. In the 1980’s Tipper Gore and the PMRC thought the government could determine which music was safe and which wasn’t.  Metal and Rap were frequently pulled from store shelves.

The Government is full of bad ideas.

Bottom line is there are many ideas for the solution, but the Bill of Rights states very clearly what Government cannot do.