Edited to add: The governor of Hawaii announced beaches and parks to re-open for exercise purposes on 04/25/20! 👏🏽
Recently, via one of the Mom groups I belong to on Facebook, I listened to an interview of Gayle Ruzicka, President of Utah Eagle Forum. There was a mention of this article which inspired me to send the letter below to our local government officials.
I want to start by acknowledging that this crisis is new for everyone and that navigating it requires that we all make sacrifices and swallow some mouthful of water. I realize that the measures taken by the government mostly stem from a desire to protect our population/country.
I do question the long term implications.
I do worry that government is overreaching its bound and taking away civil liberties in the process.
I question whether government will be willing to relinquish their new gained power once the crisis is over.
I am wondering how much freedom we will be losing long term due to COVID-19.
My husband and I decided to close our martial arts school well BEFORE the government mandate was official. We did it to protect our students not because we were told to.
We have been staying home for over a month now, taking a walk on occasion in our neighborhood or at the beach. Caring neighbors have been grocery shopping for us as my husband is considered high risk.
As of 04/17/2020, we were told that we cannot walk, run or otherwise be on the beach except to get to/from the ocean. We find this measure preposterous for many reasons:
- Kailua neighborhoods barely have sidewalks. It is much more difficult to respect the 6 feet distance while walking on the streets as it is to do on the beach.
- The beach does not belong to the government. It belongs to the people.
Government may have the right to closed public beach parks but they do not have authority over all beaches. - Law abiding, tax paying citizens are being treated like criminals for doing something that puts nobody at risk and is within the guidelines of social distancing.
If I walk on the beach with my husband and daughter and make sure to stay more than 6 feet away from anyone else, the government has no logical reasons for forbidding me to do it but right now, I can be sited and arrested if I refuse to leave the beach. How scary is that!
Since the police is patrolling the beach anyway, they could, instead of sending people away, enforce the 6-feet distancing rule. - Proximity and risk of contamination is much higher at a grocery store than it is at the beach. (I don’t have medical stats on this but the concentration of people and closeness at checkout make me think so.)
- This emergency proclamation is, in essence, transforming our democratic, citizen-led structure into a dictatorial all-powerful form of government. The government decides where I can and cannot be. The government decides what is an essential business. In Florida, the government has deemed WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) essential and events can still proceed. In most states, liquor stores remain open while in others gun stores are mandated to shut down.
side note: If you have looked at the long list, you’ll see that it defies logic. All city and state employees are still getting a paycheck even if they don’t go to work while private businesses do not. I have still yet to hear back on our emergency loan/grant application.
Citizens are losing freedom right now and have no recourse about it. The government is dangling a few dollars in front of our faces to keep us docile. Are we selling out? (Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have gotten the $2900 tax rebate since we’re losing thousands for each month our school is closed. But not if that is to buy my silence and absolute compliance to government.)
I realize there will always be a slice of the population that is irresponsible and will not choose to do the right thing unless “forced to”. That is not good enough reason to start locking shackles onto responsible, caring citizens.
I can’t help but think that our forefathers would be greatly disappointed that their sacrifices to acquire America’s freedom would be thus squandered.
America is not America without Freedom.
The Richardson Family
Kailua, Hawaii
My essay is not about the beach per se; it’s about pondering the proper role of government and learning to discern overreach.
I don’t agree with everything stated in the article I cited above. Below are the points that most resonate with me.
“Our personal Liberty is the most important thing to protect, and we all need to recognize that with Liberty comes responsibility. It is not the proper role of government to force private businesses to close.
Government does have a proper role in any situation of this nature, and its role should be to facilitate and provide every resource necessary to prevent contamination from the Coronavirus as well as developing and distributing all possible solutions and materials for those who ultimately contract the disease. We further believe government has a vital role and responsibility to disseminate, without spin or agenda, the most current, accurate and relevant information regarding threat status and local conditions.
Government also has the authority to close the public schools or any other government offices or agencies. In order to promote consistency and continuity, guidelines for the public and the private business sector on how to protect themselves and each other are also an appropriate and needed government responsibility. These defensive measures are appropriate for the common good.
Most individuals and businesses, given the truth about their situations will do the right thing. Our governments, federal and state, along with their agencies need to restore fundamental liberties to the people and to the private sector in order to begin to restore the faith they expect of us in them.
It is not the proper role of government to unnecessarily force closure of private businesses or criminalize peaceful gatherings over an arbitrary limit, or to force citizens into quarantine unless they have tested positive for the virus. We cannot, must not accept any unwarranted infringement on our Liberties.”
I am not a member of or affiliated in any way with Utah Eagle Forum, any political party, or religious organization.
I am not against social distancing and most home confinement guidelines. I personally think that COVID-19 is a serious situation. Six people in our circle have died from the virus.
A lot of really good points here!
Agree