The rights stuff

Concerns are understandable, but …

IN THE aftermath of 9/11, as the towers were still smoldering, Americans still fuming, and lawmakers banding together long enough to pass real wartime measures, civil libertarians cried foul, if not wolf, about the new legislation designed to protect the nation. The government was going too far! Secret courts! Computer tracking! Enhanced interrogation techniques!

We remember one talking head of the conservative variety who went on the television news early on to address these fears. Believe it or not, we’re pretty sure it was Newt Gingrich in one of his more reasonable moods. His warning to civil libertarians: If you think this is too much, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet if we are hit by another wave of attacks. You’re not going to believe what the American people are going to demand of their government if we get a 9/11 Part II. He made sense. A lot of sense. The governor of Arkansas warns that the trajectory of covid-19 cases is still on the upswing. Last week, the president floated an idea of quarantining New York and New Jersey. (He’s since backed off, sensibly.) Things are apt to get worse before they get better. At least, that’s what all the experts say. And civil libertarians are getting restless.

There are already complaints, doubtless to be followed by cases. According to the AP, a churchgoer in New Hampshire says prohibitions against meeting in crowds violate her religious rights. There’s an owner of a golf course in Pennsylvania who says the government shuttered his business unfairly, and it all amounts to illegal seizure of his property. Oy.

“So far, we haven’t had draconian methods, like armed police blocking people’s movement in the streets, surveillance and phone tapping,” said Larry Gostin, a public-health lawyer at Georgetown University. “But we are seeing lockdowns of millions of citizens like we have never seen before.”

He added, “We are on the precipice of something that could transform American values and freedoms.”

Yes, well. Right now we’re on the precipice of transforming a new coronavirus into a less frightful bug. And the best way to do that—by all expert accounts—is to reduce the number of people who get sick, so those who do can be treated properly. That is, stretch out a tidal wave to only a flood. They call it flattening the curve. And we haven’t seen a good argument against it.

Mary Mallon—Typhoid Mary— wouldn’t isolate, so the government put her on an island, where she died in 1938. That was an extraordinary response to an extraordinary person who wouldn’t self-quarantine, and was dangerous about it. (She kept getting jobs as a restaurant cook.) And although we’ve heard of a few people being arrested for being stupid—coughing on food in grocery stores and posting it on social media—nothing the government is doing seems to be overboard at this point.

The president doesn’t seem inclined to a national shutdown; he seems the opposite. But we wouldn’t be surprised if counties were given guidance about movement. Such as designating them as red, yellow or green zones, as a friend suggested. If that gets the ire of civil libertarians eventually, what do they think the American people will demand if this virus truly gets out of hand? As the man in the movie said, a person is smart, but people are panicky animals.

Americans are a freedom-loving breed. But few of us want to die with our rights on.