Memorial Day 2020

Memorial Day is a holiday we observe to commemorate and honor all who gave their lives to defend the freedoms we have in this country.

Maybe during this Corvid-19 situation, we ceded back some of those freedoms. I do know that the philosophical and the political question is out there like the "elephant in the room."  What price tag do we put on freedom?

People say to me all the time, "if it saves just one life..." well then we should quit driving cars. Give up that freedom, so 60,000 people a year won't die. I don't know if we can make that analogy, but flattening the curve on this virus has caused us to pause and say, "at what cost?"

OK Boomer

The expression, "OK Boomer, triggers me." I get some of the gist of the younger generations angst. We Boomers messed up a lot. We raised the "snowflakes" now, and I just triggered them.

But if what there saying is our values are out of touch and antiquated, that is the same complaint every generation had until they grew up. We all felt that way until we learned that the elders had acquired wisdom. Of course, we "Boomers" had parents and grandparents who went through two world wars and the Great Depression. We never thought of disrespecting them, Some radical. 60's types said, "Never trust anyone over 30." But of course, this was the nut job element.

We are doomed if we don't learn the lessons of the previous generation. We already see a generation who doesn't get that socialism doesn't work.

Just dismiss me and say, "OK BOOMER!"

Learning and growing

I am in love with learning. It grew out of my never having gone to college. I started making money out of high school and never felt the need. Once I hit my mid-twenties, I decided maybe I should get a degree just for the paper. I tried this for a year, but family obligations being what they were, it was back to making a living full-time.

I started to become a verrucous reader. I was only interested in business. I read every self-help book I could. I took courses and seminars. Then at the advent of the internet, I utilized its learning channels to the full extent of what I could get my brain around.

I went back to formal education in my late 40's because I ran our I.T. Department. I took hardware and software courses that ran the gambit. Because right around Y2K, the I.T. department did all things "computer-related. 

I can safely say my continuing educational experience is my life-blood. I am continually looking to develop new skills and create a talent stack.

I can only say my need to make up for lack of a college education motivated me much more than I ever would have been if I had a piece of paper.

Law of unintended consequences

My intention here is not to get into a political debate here in this post. I am just wondering about that old truth: "The Law of Unintended Consequences" and how it is going to show up in the government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 Did we wreck the economy and maybe create joblessness and homelessness for untold millions of otherwise healthy folk for the sake of saving 50 to 100 thousand of vulnerable people. 

Sometimes risk versus lives saved becomes more than pragmatic and seemingly heartless. But allowing people the freedom to drive cars entails and acceptable risk. Deaths are weighed against freedoms. If, say air travel became more dangerous would it be curtailed? 

Did we give away freedoms and rights that were fought and died for by millions of soldiers for the sake of staving off a pandemic that costs lives to be sure, but at what price?

We tore up the American constitution for sure. The first amendment was dolefully complied with and thus became archaic and meaningless in practical terms. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The issue is not whether it was the right thing to do the issue is that it simply was done. Whether or not this was a national emergency or war was never defined just assumed and submitted to by "we the people." Just for context, more people died in protests at Kent State than protesting mandatory lockdowns.  

The government gave away money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. Did anyone bother to count the cost? Was the cure worse than the disease?