It’s been a year since the toilet paper and cleaning wipes disappeared — the leading edge for what was to become the lost year of the coronavirus global pandemic.
Much has happened: the illnesses, the deaths, the endless debates over restrictions, “pivots” and — in recent months — the vaccines. Dare we say, but signs of recovery and a return to “normal” are evident. Vaccination eligibility is speeding up, people are re-emerging from self-isolation circles, and businesses are seeing more activity.
And yet, there are those who are trying to shame, bulldoze and lie their way past a sensible, paced restoration of norms. Rather than work and bring this community together, they’re set instead on continuing divisive political rhetoric that has no place in a public health crisis.
Using the name of “Freedom Matters” — as if freedom only matters to them — campaign organizers have been going around to businesses trying to trick them into abandoning masks, social distancing and other reasonable measures.
Partisans have been handing out fliers with flat-out lies, saying that as of March 1, “masks are no longer mandatory. Social distancing is no longer required. Plastic barriers are no longer required. Social circles and boundaries are no longer required.”
Only masks and distancing are subject to an executive order signed by Gov. Roy Cooper. The others are long-held recommendations promoted by federal, state and local public health experts and were never “mandatory.”
A Forceful Approach
Freedom Matters — locally it’s Moore Freedom 2021 — is being promoted through the local Republican Party, which sent the information out in its newsletter. Among its promoters are Pinehurst Village Councilwoman Lydia Boesch and Stephen Woodward, editor of the Republican Party’s newsletter. You’ll remember Boesch, who received praise in this space last year for leading an effort of volunteers in the Pinewild Country Club community to sew thousands of cloth face masks for FirstHealth employees and first responders.
And Woodward achieved notice of his own when he wrote a letter to the editor that denigrated the entire town of Robbins and a local popular Southern Pines business for employing “tattooed punks.”
We endorsed Boesch when she ran for Pinehurst Village Council two years ago, and she remains a dedicated, hard-working leader in that role. Our qualms are not with her in that capacity, but associating with a campaign working against the better interests of this community is certainly in question.
She, along with Southern Pines Town Councilman Mitch Lancaster, have been forthright in their disdain for face mask mandates to help curb the spread of COVID-19. Lancaster has tried to get his board to take stands against restrictions, counter to the rest of the council and much of the community.
Some businesses who have had encounters with “Freedom Matters” folks wanting to pass out fliers say they have been bullied and threatened with financial ruin for refusing to carry their bucket of hogwash. Those businesses declined to speak publicly, fearing retaliation.
What Really Matters
We are clearly in a transitional stage of this global pandemic. Proceeding apace with vaccinations for all who want one will go a long way toward restoring the normalcy we all seek. Recrimination, bullying and lying is no way to go through life. Boesch and Lancaster, in particular, are better than that.
The “freedom” Freedom Matters seeks doesn’t mean an unrestricted, devil-may-care approach. In announcing his state’s end of a face mask mandate last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that “removing state mandates does not end personal responsibility and caring for your family members, friends and others in your community.”
Your personal choices are no longer personal when that choice has a direct bearing on the compact of personal responsibility we each have with our community.
Freedom matters, true. But so does the responsibility and accountability that is part and parcel of that freedom.
We’re close to all achieving the same goal. Let’s do that united, not unmoored.
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March 07, 2021 at 03:00AM
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Editorial: Freedom Matters — And Responsibility | Opinion | thepilot.com - Southern Pines Pilot
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