Recently I saw this comment….”I hope Airventure goes on as planned. Allowing pilots, vendors, attendee’s, volunteers to make up their own minds as FREE THINKING adults. Time to let people make up their own minds about what to and what not to attend”.
The author then quoted Ben Franklin in support of his view regarding whether EAA should hold AirVenture 2020 as scheduled July 20-26, 2020…
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
It’s a correct quote when used in the context of the colonial battle with the British regarding “taxation without representation” which led to the Revolutionary War and the establishment of the United States. This comment and subsequent quote transcends the political affecting the potential physical health of me, my family, my neighborhood, my geographical region, and state. This is a gross misuse of Ben Franklin’s political quote taken totally out of context.
Louisiana, NY, NJ, IL, FL, etc., became Covid-19 epicenters because many FREE THINKING adults exercised their constitutional rights to assemble, gather, and ignore inconvenient but sorely needed health practices, namely social distancing. Many took a political platform, including using out-of-context founding father’s political quotes to justify poor judgement and behavior that flew in the face of a simple, well known and proven, scientific fact. Others simply did not care.
Strict social distancing will have to implemented and cooperatively done to buy the necessary time for current therapies and a future vaccines to be developed. Strict social distancing is an inconvenient truth that buys time so as to not overwhelm our hospitals including the ability to provide emergency and routine services outside of Covid-19 infections. None of this was new news then or now. Louisiana took it to another level of irresponsibility by hosting Mardi Gras in the face of the growing, overwhelming health crisis already taking place in NY. Less than a month later, they too are an epicenter of Covid-19 disease. FL’s beaches were filled with Spring Break revelers, taking their infections back to their homes all over the country, with a large concentration in the midwest, upper-midwest, and the northeast coast adding to the already chaotic scene in NY,NJ, and CT. Plus sowed the seeds of infection in areas previously unaffected.
The problem is, those decisions by those “FREE THINKING adults” affected the health and in some cases, contributed to the death of people who did not participate, nor sanction, or have any choice in those FREE THINKING adults decisions. For me, with a daughter-in-law RN handling these cases face to face, in the front lines with Covid-19 infected patients, makes it more personal to say the least.
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42% of those infected have no symptoms, meaning without testing to see who is actually infected, any Oshkosh attendee will be in close proximity to a completely unknown quantity of infected, highly contagious participants. Considering the age demographics of the average EAA member making up the bulk of Oshkosh attendees, it is abundantly clear to me that Oshkosh AirVenture 2020 could be a future Covid-19 breeding ground with a very disproportionately high Covid-19 fatality rate as a result.
It’s one thing to assemble in fighting the cause of “taxation without representation”. But use that platform to justify irresponsible behavior under the label of FREE THINKING adults exercising their constitutional rights affecting the freedom, health, and literally life of so many others is, in my mind, pure selfishness.
I am sure, when one is suffering in a crowded ICU with a ventilator aiding one’s already labored breathing, there is little comfort from hearing those immortal political words of Benjamin Franklin “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Holdeman Aero 