Perhaps the entire editorial board of “The State” newspaper is more interested in control of our population rather than the prevention of disease. I say this due to the strange out-of-control fury in which “The State” advocates for the Government of South Carolina to begin “telling South Carolinians what’s expected of them – to wear masks in public.” They go on to say McMaster needs to “toss aside the carrot and start reaching for the stick.”
Really? To tell me what is expected of me? To reach for “the stick?”
What language.
What do those words mean and imply?
In the same issue, “The State” seems to reluctantly report that the state government estimates that 153,800 people in the state have had the virus. I had to go to the internet to find the current death totals. South Carolina had 621 deaths as of June 18, 2020. That is a death rate of 0.403%. or a 99.6 percent survival rate, which is somewhat higher than the seasonal flu survival rate.
Does a disease that has a 99.6 percent survival rate justify the government taking intimate control of our every movement during our day away from home? Should government make us behave by force? Make us wear a mask – a stitch of clothing? Or else “the stick?”
Or is this something else? Perhaps a small first measure to help us get used to (and reign in) our personal liberty, spirt and the freedoms of each and every one of us? To rein in a population (black, white and everyone else) that has historically valued freedom more than ephemeral life itself. Yes I’m sorry I value our freedoms in this Country more than life (that I know is going to end), and I have always been willing to fight and die for this Country if called. – not sorry.
Really, there is no reason for “The State’s” underlying rage. And that is the important clue to the meaning of their words. Not all of us are fools and believe everything we read or watch on television.
“The State” is in a rage to end what has made us great. – and it starts with a star or a mask. It’s all the same, innocently under the guise of health and responsibility.
It won’t work.
Robert Hartman, III. Attorney
Ridgeway
