"Lock-em Up!" Covid and the Absurdity of Tyranny

"If our hope is in this life only, we are to be most pitied" (I Corinthians 15:19)

My writing motto is, "Sometimes offends; Never offended." It's more than just a saying for me; it is my way of living. 

Those who know me understand that the more people ridicule, threaten, and shame me for a position that I take, the stronger my resolve becomes. I have made it clear from the beginning that I will not receive a Covid-19 vaccination until I am persuaded it is best for me, my family, and those around me. I will not conform to any mandate. I have built personal natural immunity to Covid-19 since the summer of 2020 (laboratory certified). In addition, blood laboratories have petitioned me to donate blood to those sick with Covid-19. I do not believe it is beneficial for me to obtain the Covid-19 vaccine.

I've made my position clear on many occasions. However, there are other issues now at play, issues that should disturb every single American citizen. Well-meaning Americans, people who have little understanding of the big picture, are advocating tyranny and the flip-side absurdity that always comes with tyranny. Let me illustrate. 

There's a woman named Sarah whom I have never met, but she obviously reads what I write. Sarah wrote to me with a suggestion. Sarah said that I should take national leadership in establishing a "national registry" for "Conscientious Objectors to mandatory vaccinations, a registry for people like you."

Sarah went further. She said that the United States government should treat all those on the registry like those who consciously objected to fighting during World War II or Vietnam. There are three possibilities in Sarah's mind: 

1. Those who refuse to register as "Conscientious Objectors" should be hunted down, prosecuted, and institutionalized until the completion of our "war on Covid." 

2.  Those who voluntarily register as "Conscientious Objectors" should be forced to isolate themselves in their homes. They cannot travel, even to the store or the doctor "lest they infect others." Their refusal to be vaccinated, says Sarah, is detrimental to our nation, and they should be treated as criminals. I suppose, in Sarah's mind, wearing an ankle bracelet and being confined to home instead of jail or an institution is enough incentive for the unvaccinated to register. 

3. Sarah then gave her suggestion to me. She stated that those who voluntarily register as Conscientious Objectors to the vaccine should go to work "on the front lines." She continued "you should take the lead and go get training to become a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA), working on Covid units with those sick with Covid." Sara said working as a CNA would be similar to Conscientious Objectors working on the frontlines as medics during war, putting themselves in the middle of danger. "Wade Burleson becoming a CNA," wrote Sarah, is the only way that "you might clear your now toast reputation a bit." 

I am sure Sarah means well. She comes, however, from a perspective that is completely foreign to me. Read her rationale and justification for why she feels I should now become a CNA or EMT:

"It would only take you a few months to complete basic EMT training, and I can promise you would have no trouble gaining employment or better yet, to bwecome a volunteer on duty in Covid wards. Many emergency departments are using EMTs to first assess a patient to protect the paramedics from covid. Or, CNA training only takes a short time, and at least here in the Ozarks, a volunteer who is willing to work the Covid unites would literally be a God-send. Delta is causing more diarrhea and vomiting even in the patients needing vents. More butt wipers and chin wipers are desperately needed, freeing up higher trained personnel for other jobs. Or you just start immediately with only a few days of training if you were willing to work on the sanitation crews.  This would be true servant leadership. It would be true willingness to stand the heat along with the rest of us and might clear your now toast reputation a bit. The tide is turning and the 60's era "my freedom comes first" has turned into "damn the torpedos and full speed ahead" in the war on covid. Care to take the challenge, prove your courage, and take the risk of leading?"

Sarah actually thinks she makes sense to people like me. Truth be known, people like Sarah in government leadership are the problem we face in the United States. They focus on specialization ("wiping butts and wiping chins")  and lose sight of the big picture. The absurdity of tyranny is only surpassed by the false belief in absolute immunity. As David Epstein once said:

“The bigger the picture, the more unique the potential human contribution. Our greatest strength is the exact opposite of narrow specialization. It is the ability to integrate broadly."

There are bigger issues at stake today in America than mandatory vaccinations. Resistance to the Sarah's of this world who calmly proclaim their desire to lock up Americans who don't agree with their views is the biggest issue. What drives such narrow views of liberty? Their fear of death. "For it is through fear of death that people are subject to bondage throughout their lives" (Hebrews 2:15). 

I close today's highly disturbing post about Sarah's deeply disturbing thinking with my response.

Sarah, 

"I appreciate your explaining at length how you feel and think, and offering a suggestion to me. However, I am already with the sick and dying every day. I am on the front lines in hospitals and nursing homes. But I am ministering to them spiritually, not physically. In the Kingdom in which I live, spiritual encouragement is eternal; physical encouragement is temporal. Absolutely, CNA's are needed! But I am not called to be a CNA. Further, I am unaccustomed to other people telling me how they feel I could serve the world best. I am quite capable of determining God's direction for my life. Your desire that I become "a butt-wiper and chin-wiper" to "clear (my) now tarnished reputation" may seem logical to you, but it borders on absurdity to me. Those who serve as CNA's are to be commended, but in the end, the patient's butt will stop pooping and the patient's chin will stop dripping.

I am working on the front lines trying to help people to discover that this life is temporal and will soon come to an end. Death is universal. The resurrection to eternal life is conditional. I’d rather help those facing imminent death to know how they can find eternal life."

Blessings, 

Wade