Aden Tate
It was during my time in graduate school studying for my master’s in public health that I first discovered the prevalence of collectivist thought within the fields of public health and healthcare. Paper after paper, textbook after textbook, all seemed to espouse the same formula for dealing with any form of public health problem whatsoever: rob people of their God-given freedoms. As this realization dawned upon me throughout grad school it slowly turned into a state of horror as I discovered that these fellow students - these people who had likely never read the Constitution or Bill or Rights in their entire life - would soon be in positions of power over the rest of the American populace. I cannot remember a single time throughout my entire graduate school studentship that a professor pointed out that a particular 'remedy' to a 'problem' would violate basic human rights. Not once did we have an in-depth discussion about Constitutional law, human rights, or anything similar. I did see some fleeting glances of this discussion in some of my textbooks, but I found the content within to be incorrect - to be arguing against human rights from a flawed foundation under the excuse of 'well, it’s public health, so we can do whatever we want.' And that’s basically the underlying position that I learned throughout graduate school: that people believe public health is in essence a blank check - a source of unlimited power. Public health is the perfect guise for tyranny. Once one states that a particular action needs to be taken in order to 'protect the public health', the greater majority of Americans seem to just roll over. Fear and superstition have taken place of the love of freedom, and thus what is thought to be security is agreed to instead. It was with the passing of 2020 that I began to see the culmination of all the potential horrors we had discussed back in graduate school so many years ago. It seemed as if every day that I looked at the news online (for TV is no longer news, but instead propaganda.), that I was able to read about at least three new infringements on human rights by those who were in a quest to 'stop the spread'. And I came to the conclusion that it was time to say something. That lesson that had been learned so long ago and that occasionally got brought up in conversation with close friends, deserved to have a broader audience. This was not because I had stumbled upon some unique truth that had been lost for all these years, but instead because freedom deserves to be defended, and this is one small way that I can be involved in the fight to keep it. To keep my mouth shut at such a time would be to be complicit in the crimes (and I do mean that in the literal sense) our politicians and their enforcement teams are committing against the American people on a daily basis. I will not sit back silently fuming as I watch my nation (quite literally) burning. Years from now - when and if things get worse - should my children ask, 'Why are things so bad today, Dad?' and I tell them why, if their next question is, 'Why didn’t you do anything to stop it?', I will have a response. And this book will be a part of my proof.
