Hong Kong knows coercion
COVID mandates
Regarding “We can't endanger the lives of the many to humor the misconceptions of the few,” (Aug. 1): Leonard Pitts’ argument that public interest supersedes personal choice so we should “stop asking nicely” and “impose coercive measures” has implications beyond COVID. Empowering the government in a free society to coerce its citizens in the name of “public interest” is a slippery slope. A government can define “public interest” any way it wants. Just ask the people in Hong Kong who have seen their civil liberties erode in recent years. Today, the COVID vaccine mandate. Tomorrow, free speech restrictions. Efforts by government using big tech monopolies to censure “misinformation,” as those in power define it, are already underway.
Theresa Cornett, Sugar Land The personal choice mantra evoked by the anti-vaccination groups reminds me of my experience with alcoholism. An alcoholic will tell you they are hurting no one but themselves, yet heartbroken spouses, children and parents know the truth: It’s not simply a personal matter when it affects everyone who comes in contact with them. An infected, unmasked person is like a drunken driver: deadly.
That’s why there are laws protecting us from their personal choice to drink and drive. We must pass laws now to protect us from a pandemic of mutated superviral infection by the recalcitrant antivaxxers who presently move freely among us unvaccinated and without even having the courtesy to wear a mask. It’s a disease that kills other people, not a political or personal choice.
Mike McClure, Sugar Land
BIBLE VERSE
Like a muddied spring or a polluted well are the righteous who give way to the wicked.
Proverbs 25:26