Allegedly, a member of the Second Virginia Convention in 1775 — Patrick Henry — made an inflammatory speech at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, that included the now-famous phase, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Historical account credit Henry’s speech with inspiring the assembled convention members — which included such notables and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson — with subsequently passing a resolution delivering Virginian troops to the upcoming war with England. Among the delegates to the convention were future US Presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.
We note that Mr. Henry was giving us an option here. “Liberty” or “Death”. One or the other. But not both.
This was a long time ago, when the citizens were given substantive alternatives to choose from, but in my opinion, these are two great options. “Liberty” or “Death”. Doesn’t get any more noble than that.
In 2021, we are faced with four slightly different options. Pfizer. Moderna. Johnson & Johnson. And “No thank you”.
Allegedly, 7 out of 10 Coloradans have now submitted to at least one injection of one vaccine or another, as of July 4, 2021. Governor Jared Polis is among the many people who have made this claim.
I’m using the word “allegedly” because, when I visited the Fort Collins Coloradan — “Northern Colorado’s most trusted local news source since 1873” — you will be shown a slightly different number, as of July 4, 2021:
60.7% who have received at least one dose. That’s, like, 6 out of 10.
So we have options. We can believe the government, or we can believe the newspaper. Choices are a good thing.
We have choices, too, concerning COVID variants. The Alpha Variant (from the UK), the Beta Variant (from South Africa), the Gamma Variant (from Brazil), and the Delta Variant (from India). The original strain from Wuhan, China has apparently been voted off the island. The most popular strain in Colorado, currently, appears to be the Delta Variant. More contagious than the original strain, and maybe more virulent. Or maybe, not more virulent. We’re not sure.
But definitely, the Delta Variant is one of the available choices.
You don’t actually get to choose which variant you get infected with, so I suppose we can’t accurately define them as “options”. More like, an “assortment”. Like a box of chocolates, where you never know what you’re going to get.
Viruses become variants by acquiring mutations, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to Dr. Jasmine Plummer, associate director of applied genomics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. People mistakenly think of viruses as dumb animals, but allegedly, they’re intelligent, and are, in fact, trying out these different variants to see which one works the best.
“[Viruses] want to survive,” Dr. Plummer explained to USA Today. “It’s not in [their] best benefit to keep killing the host, meaning the [infected] person. Near the end, [the virus might] figure out a way… to survive by infecting more people, but the outcome of that infection is hopefully not as severe.”
Allegedly, Colorado’s Congressional Representative from the 3rd Congressional District, Lauren Boebert, has formulated an effective alternative method for putting an end to this bothersome COVID pandemic.
I again use the word “allegedly” because the mainstream media claims that Representative Boebert posted this recommendation on her Twitter account, and then deleted it an hour later.
If this Twitter post is authentic, then we must wonder why the CDC — more than a year into the pandemic — never not let us know about the advantages of voting Republican. (We turned off CNN a long time ago.)
As most Daily Post readers know, Rep. Boebert has been outspoken on the subject of “liberty” long before her decision to run for Congress. She encourages us to embrace the liberty of wearing handguns, and additionally encourages us to exercise our liberty by not wear face masks. The reason is obvious. A handgun offers much more protection than a face mask, even if you never have to use it.
So there we have yet more choices. Handgun, or face mask?
I personally think liberty is a fine thing, and so did the participants at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775. Thanks to Patrick Henry, “Liberty or Death” was their rallying cry.
There’s one tricky detail about choosing the liberty of not wearing a face mask, and not getting vaccinated, and instead voting Republican. You are more likely to die from COVID. Allegedly.
So maybe we should adopt the new rallying cry for 2021. “Give me liberty… and give me death.” Because it’s not really a choice between two noble outcomes, like in the good old days.
More like a package deal. You can have them both.