Lacking From Today's 'Leaders:' Integrity

With our nice break from the tornadoes typical of May, I wanted to write this before we start covering the resumption of widespread severe storms this week.

As you know, I have been critical of both global warming and COVID-19 extremism. You'll see a number of my pieces on the latter topic simply by scrolling down.

Leo deplaning from a luxury private jet before boarding his limo.
Photo: "The Daily Mail"

Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio are responsible for much of the global warming nonsense that gets published today. Yet both have giant carbon footprints: multiple homes, private jets, and yachts. The private jets are especially galling because, of all of the methods in the world, they are the most carbon intensive. Those with gigantic carbon footprints thumb their noses at those of us who, by comparison, have tiny carbon footprints.

But, it isn't just global warming. If we had to locate the single person most responsible for the recent COVID-19 lockdowns, it would probably be Dr. Neil Ferguson. His nonsense model predicted at least 2.2 million deaths in the United States due to the coronavirus. He recommended the lockdowns. You might call him, "The Al Gore of COVID-19."

But, like Gore, he doesn't believe the rules that he applied to everyone else need to apply to him. Dr. Ferguson broke the lockdown, at least twice, to carry on with a married woman.

I'll give Ferguson credit: Unlike Gore when caught in adultery and hypocrisy, Dr. Ferguson resigned from the Great Britain's science advisory board. At least he has the sufficient scruples to feel shame.

Which brings me to the point of this piece: Integrity.

I give President Trump and the state governors passes on the overly oppressive lockdowns because, faced with what seemed to be an authoritative prediction that 2.2 million Americans were going to die, what would you do? Based on that information, it was the responsible thing to do. Where I fault them is their failure to:

• Stick to the original "two weeks to flatten the curve so hospitals are not overwhelmed."
• The CYA extensions of the "two weeks" based on models that were shown, over and over, the be just plain wrong. Much of this was based on fear that the inevitable deaths, however small in number, would be used against them in future political campaigns. In other words, they were putting their political needs above the needs of the people they swore to serve when they took their oaths of office. 

Governors in several states have attacked Christians
wanting to attend church -- even with precautions!!

Yet, while they were pushing unemployment to Great Depression levels, our 'leaders,' in too many cases, couldn't follow the rules they were imposing on everyone else. That link, by the way, is just one of literally dozens of examples, many of which you are probably already aware.

The 'cure' equal to or as bad as the disease?
"Wichita Eagle"

Unlike young people who believe the awfulness of today's airline experience is "normal," perhaps I am cursed by my age and memory. Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and, heck, even Jimmy Carter would not, during an acute crisis, have behaved in exactly the opposite manner to the emergency rules they were imposing on the rest of us. Never!

They had integrity; a trait that is terribly lacking in today's "elites."

We are seeing the breakdown of the lockdowns (see: the woman jailed for opening her hair salon) in part because people aren't stupid. They see the glaring hypocrisy. More and more, the general public sees the harassment people on beaches in California (see below) and

Police, in boat, going to arrest a sole paddle boarder for breaking the quarantine.
Via Twitter

Hawaii who are hurting no one (let alone spreading coronavirus), often by

police who are not wearing the masks that everyone else is supposed to wear. Putting some of these people in jail after the release of felons so the virus will not spread?! Sending in SWAT teams and military equipment because someone opened a restaurant, for gosh sakes?!?!

Note, they are not wearing masks. Photo: PJ Media

In a constitutional republic, governmental officials get their authority from "the consent of the governed." I fear that if there is, as some predict, a more serious outbreak of coronavirus this autumn, that no one will pay attention to potentially-needed isolation orders. Why? Because the authorities have, in far too many cases, blown their credibility this time around. 

In a situation of scientific uncertainty, whether it is coronavirus, global warming, or dietary advice, officials need to act out of a spirit of humility and integrity rather than "lording it over" the people they govern. Otherwise, the fraying bonds that hold us together will fray even further and faster.

In the meantime, reopen our society! At this point, the cost of the shutdown is great than the disease.