LETTER: Government overreach on full display

Editor, Register-Mail: Stand behind your principles, make sacrifices and take action. Going forward it is clear standing up for your principles may require increasing amounts of sacrifice. If restrictions of movement, travel, health, and education can be implemented by a government (in other western countries particularly) in the name of a health emergency, it is not to hard to imagine additional restrictions imposed in the name of a climate emergency for instance. It is also easy to foresee a health emergency requiring firearm ownership to be illegal. It would not have to be enforced in the short term, but slow encroachments of liberties over a generation or two along with the discouragement of free thought in education would eliminate most freedom fighters. George Orwell saw part of this decades ago. He said, “Football, beer, and above all, gambling, filled up the horizons of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”

This is one of the reasons why people in all corners of the country and world are getting fed up with their governments. People are seeing infringements in the name of a health emergency as the first step in boiling a frog in water. You do not have to comply. You do have a choice. You are civically obligated to resist if something requires a compromise of your principles. The next step is becoming involved with your freedom loving neighbors and the growing number of freedom loving groups locally.

Personal sacrifices of some of my peers include no longer going to that favorite restaurant, no longer taking a flight, getting rid of their dual income and downsizing to allow for homeschooling, and ending a career with no game plan just to hold on to their convictions. Could it truly be a correct policy move to alienate a large minority of our population because they choose to live in a way that some people feel threatened by?

I encourage anyone who carries similar beliefs to become more self reliant and eliminate frivolous spending. Continue asking questions and become involved. Consider financial and personal implications of standing true to your principles and prepare accordingly. Be cautious of all information as there is a self serving rabbit hole of knowledge for each of us out there.

Government overreach is on full display.

The president is correct when he says it isn't about freedom or personal choice. With Marxism, it never is. — Troy Fleisher, Knoxville