A woman wears a mask as she commutes during rush hour on a subway, Tuesday, March 17, 2020 in New York. The subway is normally crowded but many people are staying home out of concern for the spread of coronavirus. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

We’re facing an existential threat, and it’s a hole in the ozone layer. Oh wait, changing the propellant in my wife’s can of hair spray, and paying ten times more for my car’s air conditioning refrigerant would solve that crisis – so say the experts.  Or, are they just done manipulating us into the desired behaviors?  We may never know, limited by the fact that we cannot relive history with different choices to see what would have happened if we ignored the experts and their fear mongering.  The microphone was so loud we couldn’t hear ourselves think.

Remember the actress Meryl Streep yelling into a microphone that Alar on apples would be our undoing? Remember Y2K, the claim that the year becoming the number 2000 was modeled to be the collapse of our delicate infrastructure and civilization?  I could go on with many more examples of us being duped because of our unquestioning deference to fallible specialists, along with less confidence in our own critical thinking and common sense.

We are still in some ways a tribal people, joining with those of like mind and heart, united in our passion for saving lives and making the world better.  But why is our crusade the only one worthy of universal absolute devotion, right now, at all costs, when that often causes more harm than good?

CAFÉ mileage laws were based on expert models showing us burning less gasoline in our vehicles, but brought with them a significant increase in accident deaths; those lighter fuel efficient cars are more deadly when hitting massive objects.  The true believers would go all in and insist that all our cars all weigh the same.  But should we?

Climate, which has always been changing, is another supposed existential threat.  A Swedish teenager grabbed the microphone with that alarm, and Congresswoman Cortez’ Green New Deal solution was considered and rejected as an extreme breach of individual liberty, and enough spending to bankrupt the nation.  Are we just lucky our President and Governors did not illegitimately declare it an emergency and force us into it anyway, or did the legislative branch do its job as designed?

For solving real problems, professional specialists are a wonderful gift to us when they discover in creation things which enhance or save all lives.  Take Doctors.  You know an MD has the requisite humility when they admit most of the increase in human life expectancy is due not to vaccines or medical technology, but to garbage collectors and plumbers; the hygiene that comes with separation from pathogens and clean water account for the most of the shift from us dying in our 40s to our 70s.

Specialist Doctors, Epidemiologists, have grabbed the microphone. Without incontrovertible facts of an imminent or overwhelming emergency, but only speculative models about a future problem, the President and Governors have declared war on one invisible virus out of many.  Wars require tremendous sacrifice and dedication, so people must be rallied and unified first, and the legal American way of doing this is for Congress to declare war.  Was even a state level resolution not sought because it would have been considered just one more problem amongst many, with several different viable solutions, easily chosen and enacted by individuals?  In other words, get in line with all of the other worthy causes, like the 1.6 million people worldwide who die every year from the respiratory illness tuberculosis, for which we have an antibiotic cure.  Do we have tuberculosis blood on our hands because the media made us obsess over a Corona virus?

Assuming the epidemiologists’ dogma and our docile compliance, the 60,000 Americans we lost to respiratory disease in 2018 could have been reduced to 20,000 deaths.  If we fail to confront the emotional blackmail and manipulation that has recently surfaced on this topic, don’t we have to admit the blood of the extra 40,000 flu deaths is on our hands?  Wouldn’t Greta ask How Dare You?

With the dangerous precedent that has been set, as Governor I could padlock the abortion clinics and demand as good citizens your support and compliance since my models show a strong possibility of saving 3000 lives per day.  Would the media start repeating public service announcements about chastity, and doing your part?

Way more than two million Americans die every year from several different causes.  You living your best life, considerate of others (helping the vulnerable), does not make you responsible for their deaths.  Of course you may feel passionately about one or more of them.  Before you and your tribe reach for the microphone, please have the humility to not trample on the inalienable rights of your fellow citizens? Try persuasion.   Or peace and quiet for awhile.  Definitely do not do more harm than good.