The bait is in the water and Fisherman Pete is waiting for a strike. He's been trolling Alaskan waters for nearly 100 years. A plate full of lutefisk and lefse, with a strong cup of coffee served black, is all it takes to get him started.

ARCHIVED

November 12, 2020

The Right to Not Wear a Mask

 The argument that the government does not have the right to require that one must wear a mask does not hold up to any inherent unalienable right belonging to any individual. The rights of any one individual extend only so far as it DOES NOT impinge on the the right of another’s individual rights.

It is commonly acknowledged that individuals in this country have the right to bear arms under the bill of rights so long as they do not use them to take the life of another’s. That would violate the right to life, liberty, and property. These individual rights are some times refereed to as natural rights, rights that an individual has by being born and a citizen in a free country. It’s what our founding fathers wanted to protect from other forms of government that took these natural rights away. Namely the overbearing monarchy of king George.

The natural rights of individuals can only get you so far. Our society is built on the participation and interaction of people who come together for the economic benefit of association. As long as these interactions occur in the commons, they are allowable as long as the activity does not impede on the individual natural rights of others. Again, the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. This argument is often touted by republicans who claim its is their right to liberty that is being taken away by requiring that they are bring required to wear a mask That is not the case at all.

In fact by choosing to live in a society and profit by that association but not wearing mask is violating the rights of others to live there lives in a COVID free commons . To operate and gain profit in the society that they choose to live in does not come without an obligation to the other members of that society and their natural right to life. If the society deems that by not wearing a mask you threaten the individual right to life that is protect by the constitution, you have no right to supersede their right to life. You do have the obligation to vacate your economic activity that comes with participating in society if you do not want to wear a mask. But if you choose not to wear a mask, you do not have any rights to the continue the benefits of economic association and thereby threatening the natural rights of others in society.

You do not have the right not to wear the mask if you live in the United States of America.