Rights without Responsibility

Since the advent of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and its variants, I have heard a lot of people talk about "their rights". They should have "the right" to refuse vaccination, the "right" to refuse a mask, the "right" to create lies and miseducate people. But what exactly are rights? Are these so-called "rights" god-given, are they something we are born with, and most importantly, do they come without any burden of responsibility?

Rights are socially constructed agreements that we have made with each other and possibly with our government that state we have the freedom to do certain things at certain times and under certain conditions. Sometimes those rights depend on who you are and where you are positioned in society. And since there is no real equity in our society, rights are not granted the same across the board.

The United Nations Human Rights office of the High Commissioner asserts that Human Rights are rights that exist simply because we are human. These rights are not granted by any governmental body, They simply are and all human beings are equally entitled to those rights. These include the right to life, food, education, work, health and liberty.

Now there are plenty of other rights that have a list of responsibilities that go along with them. That is because we live in a society with other people and our needs and desires do not always coincide. Generally, these responsibillities are in place to ensure that no harm can come out of the "rights" of one person over the other. For example, if you wish to drive in the United States you must be at least 16 years old and have a drivers license. If you wish to get married you have the responsibility of not currently being married and the responsibility of filing for a marriage license. If you wish to drive a car you must also have some type of insurance, depending on the state in which you live. There are many examples of our so called "rights" that have a responsibility, or several, attached to them.

The same principle can be argued for attending public school. It is your right to have your child attend public school, but you have a responsibility to have your child vaccinated. Why? Why should you be responsible for putting a drug in the bodies of your children before they can attend school? In fact, not only must your child be immunized, you have to have proof of that immunization before your child can even be enrolled.

This is because viral and bacterial transmission rates are higher when you have people in close proximity. This is a scientific fact, folks. Not all children come to school with the same hygiene standards as their fellow students. Not all children can. Vaccinations prevent the spread of disease and therefore children have to have them as a matter of course to attend public school. This isn't a tool to take your liberty away from you, it is a tool to protect your children and my children.

Did you know that measles had been declared eradicated in 2000? Well, they aren't anymore, thanks to anti-vaxxers. In 2014-2015 there was a large outbreak at Disneyland and in response, California does not allow people to opt-out of vaccines due to personal reasons. That is an example of a right with responsibilities. You fucked it up, you pay the price. In 2019, we had over 1,000 confirmed measles cases in 31 states, and in 2020 we had 12. Remember, folks, we were doing some pretty serious social distancing in 2020.

The bottom line is that we do not have rights without some form of responsibility. To exercise rights without responsibility leads to anarchy at worst and, at best, tramples all over someone else's right to liberty if you will.

Liberty means that we have the right to do what we want, but you have to put that in the context of other people's rights as well. I could drive recklessly on the road, what's wrong with that? Especially if the roads are empty? Well, when idiot me gets hurt, if I don't have enough money for full insurance guess who pays? You do! Isn't that wonderful? My actions have now affected your pocketbook. Or laws get changed because idiot me wanted to drag race. I am not hte only idiot affected, we all are.

The other thing I have heard the right arguing about is that they have the right to control their own body. That sounds quite familiar to me, yet in a very different context. When it comes to a woman making crucial decisions about her own body, who better to do that than the government?

Nobody can change stupid, but we can educate the ignorant. Or maybe pray for Darwinism? In recent news out of Nashville Tennesee, a conservative talk show host contracted the virus and now regrets being a naysayer. He is now encouraging his listeners to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

All of that aside, it is your responsibility, to your family, friends, patients and even neighbors you don't like to protect them from your stupid decisions, your bad choices. We have a delta variant because we did not act quick enough to vaccinate those who could be vaccinated. And those who could be vaccinated refuse to do so on the principle of rights and liberty, principles they clearly fail to understand.

If you enjoyed reading this article, please let me know. if you didn't, please let me know. I would love to hear from you.