If you drive a car in California, you're familiar with the speed limit mandate. At least, you should be. If you're not familiar with it, you can inform yourself by clicking the link right here. That will take you to an online tutorial on California speed laws.
I may have missed it, but I have not seen any online organizing around the assault on basic American freedoms associated with the speed limit mandate. I have, however, noticed that there is a substantial amount of outcry and organizing aimed at vaccination and masking mandates, whether promulgated by state and local governments - or by our national government. An article on the front page of The New York Times on Friday, September 10, 2021, headlined the issue: "Biden Issues Sweeping Mandates For Shots."
When we think about our government, we should place an emphasis on the "our." We are not just an unconnected bunch of individuals, operating independently. We are in this life together, and the way we conduct ourselves individually affects the health, safety, and welfare of everyone else. Some kind of rules are obviously needed. The nice thing about our democratic form of government is that we have established mechanisms to insure that the rules that constrain our individual activities are the product of a collective deliberation, and that whatever rules may be put in place are always subject to amendment and correction by our democratically-elected officials.
Out on the road, speed limit mandates save lives. Out in a society in which a highly-infectious virus is rampant, a requirement for individual masking and vaccination saves lives.
Don't you think I am right about that?
If I am, then vaccination and mask mandates are not evidences of totalitarian efforts to deny basic freedoms. They are evidence of our collective efforts to try to provide maximum safety for us all.
Image Credit:
https://www.driverseducationusa.com/resources/speed-laws/
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