Anti-vaccine bill corrupts the ideal of freedom
Ohio’s Republican lawmakers don’t care about your freedom. They care only about the freedom that suits their purpose.
That’s not hyperbole. Just take a look at the debate over House Bill 248, which prohibits, among other things, any business or state agency from requiring an employee to receive a vaccine of any kind.
So, let’s get this straight: Lawmakers want people to have the freedom not to get a vaccine, but they want to take away the freedom of businesses and others to run their organization as they see fit.
That’s not standing up for freedom. That’s standing up for hypocrisy.
Taking away one freedom at the expense of another is not the American way. We use “freedom” as a partisan dog whistle and don’t care to acknowledge that freedom is a right for us all.
Let’s be clear: No one is taking away anyone’s freedom. No one has to get a COVID-19 vaccine. You have the freedom to decide whether that is best for you, and that’s the way it should be.
Conversely, businesses have the right to determine what is best for them. The Supreme Court in 1905 ruled that businesses can require employees receive the smallpox vaccination. Just this year, the court let stand a lower court ruling that favored Indiana University’s mask requirements. In other words, this has been the law of the land for more than 100 years. Mandating vaccines is not new.
If HB 248 passes – and it shouldn’t – expect court challenges like those we are seeing in Florida. The state tried to ban businesses from showing proof of COVID-19 vaccinations. Norwegian Cruise Line sued, saying, in essence, you can’t tell a private business what to do. A federal judge agreed and blocked Florida from enforcing the law against the cruise company.
That is how freedom for all works. You don’t have to get a vaccine, or work at a company, or frequent a business that requires one.
The state is well within its rights to mandate, to state agencies, what it can and can’t do. It should not. Lawmakers are not scientists.
They should not be in the business of telling a school district in Delaware County – in which 65% of residents are fully vaccinated – that is has to abide by the same mandates as Holmes County, in which just 15% of residents have been vaccinated. You want real freedom?
Give these school districts and state agencies the right to make rules that are best for their entire community, not just that sliver of constituents you think can get you re-elected.
Let people decide how they will navigate shots, masks, business rules, etc. Some won’t like the decisions, but that brings me to my last point.
Freedom is not a one-way street. Freedom is about respect for all, not just for what you believe.
Ray Marcano, a longtime journalist, is the former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, a two-time Pulitzer juror and a Fulbright fellow.