Standing Our Ground and Speaking The Truth

 Over at Crisis Magazine, Ron McNamara has an excellent article entitled Creeping Authoritarianism in America. Of course, Crisis is a Catholic publication, but we won't hold that against the publication.

For nearly three decades I devoted myself to upholding the dignity of individuals in far off lands who were denied freedoms most Americans routinely took for granted. Never could I have imagined that our God-given rights, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, would be threatened on our own shores as we see today. A lesson I learned while confronting authoritarian and dictatorial regimes on behalf of the repressed was the importance of speaking out clearly, publicly, and early on. We remain silent at our own peril.

I have said before that speaking out the turth often and loudly is our biggest contribution. By speaking out to counter the lies, we give courage to others to do the same. One of the things that is being foisted on the American people is the idea of masking. People reason that if doctors mask, doesn't that point to them believing in the efficacy of masks? But doctors, like many professionals, must have a government issued license, and serve at the pleasure of that government:

Fear is a powerful weapon typically used by authoritarians to coerce the masses into compliance. I have seen all too often during the course of my career what happens when the powers that be bring to bear the levers of state force and control against individuals and groups who fail to toe the party line.

Anyone subject to state or federal certification or licensure—doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, lawyers, teachers and other educators, social workers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, architects and engineers, transportation workers, food service employees, carpenters, plumbers and other tradesmen, and many more—are particularly vulnerable.

McNamara goes on to cite a number of instances of the recent authoritarianism that tend to provide proof of his thesis. Then there is this:

As some scientists are suggesting that the ChiComm virus is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future, attempts to curtail our fundamental freedoms as Americans should be met with strong, public opposition. The stakes are tremendously high for us, for our children, and for our children’s children. Left unchecked, the creeping authoritarianism we are witnessing before our eyes will spread, robbing us of the freedoms we have for too long taken for granted.