# Americans have the right to do stupid things



## Paco Dennis (Nov 4, 2021)

_"America has long been a stronghold of freedom. The first few amendments to the Constitution guarantee freedom of speech and religion, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, the right to bear arms, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to due process, and the right not to incriminate ourselves.

Unwritten among our fundamental rights — but still alive and thriving — is the freedom to do stupid things. 

For proof, look no further than the ongoing debate over COVID-19 vaccinations. 



State governments unquestionably have the power to mandate vaccines. 

This authority dates to a 1905 Supreme Court case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts. With smallpox raging in 1902, the city of Cambridge passed a law mandating that every resident over age 21 get vaccinated or face a $5 fine. 

Pastor Henning Jacobson, one of our nation’s original anti-vaxxers, refused, saying he’d suffered serious medical maladies from past vaccines. Jacobson lost at the highest court in the land by a 7-2 vote. 

Writing for the majority, Justice Marshall Harlan opined: “Upon the principle of self-defense, of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”

Thus, state government has all the authority it needs to mandate vaccines. Our elected leaders simply won’t do so, especially in Arizona.

Our Legislature passed multiple bills this past session forbidding vaccine mandates, vaccine passports and mask mandates, and prohibiting schools from forcing teachers and students to get a vaccine to participate in in-person classes.

Regardless, some Valley and Tucson school districts have passed mask mandates anyway, a move that undoubtedly will end up litigated to death. 



Where do I stand? Well, given the evidence that vaccines work — like the fact that 165 million Americans have been fully vaccinated and haven’t dropped dead or been hospitalized en masse — I believe it’s foolish not to get one, absent a religious objection or some serious medical condition. 

At the same time, I support your right to do things I believe are foolish. That’s the price of freedom: Because we live in a country where the government doesn’t nanny us on every little thing, or big things like a pandemic that to date has killed 612,000 people, sometimes our friends and neighbors will do things we deeply wish they would not.

Like refusing to get a shot that can diminish your risk of getting COVID-19, getting extremely ill if you do, or dying from the virus.

“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control, explained at a July press briefing. “Our biggest concern is we are going to continue to see preventable cases, hospitalizations and sadly deaths among the unvaccinated.”

Here in Arizona, where about half the state has been fully vaccinated, 95% of nearly 17,000 reported COVID-19 cases in May were among people who were not fully vaccinated. In June, it was 92% of 12,911 reported cases.

The capper? Since the start of 2021, approximately 99% of COVID-19 deaths in Arizona were people not fully vaccinated. 

Maybe you want to prove you’re tough. Maybe you’re afraid or you don’t believe the Arizona Department of Health Services statistics cited in the above paragraph. You don’t need to explain your reasoning, not to anyone. 

That’s the beauty of America. To a greater extent than any society on this great green Earth, you can say what you want, believe what you want, and do with your body what you want.

In America, we don’t rely on our government to legislate foolishness out of existence. Besides, it seems COVID-19 and its deadly variants have that well in hand. "_

https://www.westvalleyview.com/opin...cle_2da3f2a8-faa6-11eb-8617-0736e626ebe1.html


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 4, 2021)

Oh, gee, another Covid thread.  My cup of Covid threads overflows.

Yes, of course, Americans have the right to be stupid, make stupid decisions, and live their entire lives as stupid individuals.  I have often, in hindsight, made stupid decisions.    But, our government, as well has made incredibility stupid decisions.

Is mandating vaccinations for Covid-19 a stupid decision?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  None of us can really judge.  Therefore, it is what it is.


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## SmoothSeas (Nov 4, 2021)

Two things my grandma always used to preach were...

*better safe, than sorry, and
*an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

I'm fully vaccinated.  While not a clinician, I found the science sound.

Back in the 70's, I was aghast when the use of seatbelts was first mandated,  These days, I buckle my belt before inserting the key into the ignition


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## David777 (Nov 4, 2021)

No one has a right to go into a public indoor place like a restaurant, church, bus, etc while playing loud obnoxious music on a boombox, while frequently sickly coughing and blowing their nose, and smelling like a sewer due to lack of hygiene.  My extreme example was meant to show there have always been limits to freedom in public we as a human society set by either common sense or actual policy.


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## win231 (Nov 4, 2021)

David777 said:


> No one has a right to go into a public indoor place like a restaurant, church, bus, etc while playing loud obnoxious music on a boombox, while frequently sickly coughing and blowing their nose, and smelling like a sewer due to lack of hygiene.  My extreme example was meant to show there have always been limits to freedom in public we as a human society set by either common sense or actual policy.


Quite true.  But not a valid comparison.  Trying to force a drug or vaccine on someone is a different story.


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## David777 (Nov 4, 2021)

Well then arguments ought be posed so narrowly instead of with a broad stroke as is most common.


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## Nathan (Nov 4, 2021)

Paco Dennis said:


> _"_
> Americans have the right to do stupid things



Yes, they sure do, and don't seem to miss an opportunity to do just that.


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## Pepper (Nov 4, 2021)

What would have happened, I wonder, to Typhoid Mary today, would she be screaming for her right to infect?
*Typhoid Mary died on November 11, 1938, on North Brother Island, part of the Bronx, New York, where she had been quarantined on two separate occasions in her lifetime. Her second quarantine lasted 23 years and culminated in her eventual death several years after suffering a paralytic stroke*.


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## Sunny (Nov 4, 2021)

Good article, Paco. Americans do have the right to do stupid things, which happens all too often.

When their stupid things bring normal life to a halt, destroy other people's plans and dreams (such as all the businesses ruined), and in many cases kill other people, those other people also have the right to try to protect themselves and preserve what's left of their society, by mandating necessary health rules.


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## Lara (Nov 4, 2021)

Why is this about Americans and their stupidity? Only Americans?
I'm American and I haven't entered any Covid debates.
Does that mean I've narrowed the field on "American stupidity"?
Well, that's a first


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## Aneeda72 (Nov 4, 2021)

David777 said:


> No one has a right to go into a public indoor place like a restaurant, church, bus, etc while playing loud obnoxious music on a boombox, while frequently sickly coughing and blowing their nose, and smelling like a sewer due to lack of hygiene.  My extreme example was meant to show there have always been limits to freedom in public we as a human society set by either common sense or actual policy.


Have you ever met a teenager


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## Irwin (Nov 4, 2021)

David777 said:


> No one has a right to go into a public indoor place like a restaurant, church, bus, etc while playing loud obnoxious music on a boombox, while frequently sickly coughing and blowing their nose, and smelling like a sewer due to lack of hygiene.  My extreme example was meant to show there have always been limits to freedom in public we as a human society set by either common sense or actual policy.


Many people these days talk loudly on their phones using the speakerphone so everyone can hear them, whether it's in a store or out at the park or some other public place. That was a thing back in the late '90s when cellphones were starting to become ubiquitous and people wanted to broadcast to the public that they were special because they had one, or I assumed that's why they spoke loudly into them. Who knows what the reasoning is now since everyone has one, but they might just as well carry a sign stating: _I'm a selfish individual and I don't care about anyone but me! _I don't know if it really is a trend, but it sure seems like it.


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## Alligatorob (Nov 4, 2021)

Paco Dennis said:


> Americans have the right to do stupid things


Yes we do, and its a good thing, as we don't seem to agree on what's stupid and what isn't.  

Probably ought to be in the Bill of Rights.


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## chic (Nov 4, 2021)

David777 said:


> No one has a right to go into a public indoor place like a restaurant, church, bus, etc while playing loud obnoxious music on a boombox, while frequently sickly coughing and blowing their nose, and smelling like a sewer due to lack of hygiene.  My extreme example was meant to show there have always been limits to freedom in public we as a human society set by either common sense or actual policy.


That's not true. I've been on public transportation in my life with people exactly like that. Of course they have that right. It's misbehavior. Some of the best times I've had in my life have been doing what others may call stupid things.


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## Sassycakes (Nov 4, 2021)

I'm happy I grew up when I did. People took vaccines like the one for Polio and others and we survived.


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## David777 (Nov 4, 2021)

As defined by the United Nations:

_Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and _*many more*_. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination._

Human rights are not just about what has been declared public law or policy.  Rights in a social sense does not include unacceptable behavior.  That is why "many more" is included so society can flexibly exclude what is inappropriate.

Just because someone was able to do something does not mean in a general sense it was a "right" if what was done was against policy, law, or normal acceptable social behavior. In fact being obnoxious on public transportation is very much against the law in many large cities. And that includes playing loud music on public transportation as it bothers others. Enforcement is another issue. The fact there is no such law in a small town because they never have bothered to deal with whatever is merely an exception. In most cities whenever individuals do something obnoxious though novel, policies or laws soon follow to prohibit such.  More recently that has occurred in many ways with drones where the right to fly such has been greatly limited.


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