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As we approach the second anniversary of Covid

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By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist


Modern governments have been given a gift when it comes to controlling populations. Instilling widespread fear in the population and turning everyone into a snitch makes the politicians smile. They have often in the past looked for ways to unite people under their sphere of influence, and Covid has done this fantastically.

For the record, I think being “vaccinated” (in quotes, for it is not a vaccination in the classic sense of the word) is a personal decision. I am responsible for my own health; I do not look to you to protect me from your exhaled breath or dirty hands. That is my responsibility, and I squarely take it on.

Will we ever be rid of these blasted masks? I have made 13 fully masked coast-to-coast flights this year. I am sick of them, but think many in the ruling class hope they last forever (as I write this, Biden has extended the airline masked policy yet another 60 days to mid-March).

The masks have become a visible sign of obedience (or subservience, if you prefer) as a protection against an invisible “enemy.”

Want to get a professional opinion about that cloth mask you obediently wear? Go to an emergency room as Laura did a few weeks ago. They had her out of that and into a medically approved multilayer paper and non-woven mask faster than you can sneeze.

Comparing Covid to climate change is an instructive exercise. On the one hand (Covid), governments show weakness and insist we heed their wisdom and mask up for safety’s sake. On the other hand (climate change), the governments assure us they know exactly how to pursue the fearsome (according to them) two or three degrees of possible temperature change in the next one hundred years or so.

The only thing certain in these two contemporary curiosities is that the government tells us to trust them, that they know best and that we better follow their instructions or face arrest.

May I suggest that government, especially the U.S. federal government, has a track record of failures that extends back as far as I have been an adult, possibly further. If a corporation had the track record of our federal government, it would have gone out of business at about the time the Packard Motor Car Company did.

So, pardon me for being skeptical and a bit sour, but as far as I am concerned, it is a miracle that this country is even a shadow of its former self, for politicians of all ilks have done their best to rob and steal the federal coffers blind with their favorite pork projects and clever ways of lining their own pockets, all the while tightening their grip on us.

Thank goodness for the founding fathers who were able to design a system that has withstood the vilest, crookedest and most incompetent politicians we can elect. Let’s just hope that Covid does not become the final, magic elixir that does us in.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press. He may be reached at jthompson@taii.com.

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