Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

One of the great ironies revealed by the Covid-19 pandemic is the action of many Americans who profess to be lovers of freedom and of their fellow Americans, but who have ignored common sense and betrayed that love, in their irresponsible exercise of freedom during these trying days of pandemic.

Not only have they endangered their own health, they have acted in a manner that expresses an abandonment of their concern for the health of their fellow citizens.

Abraham Lincoln warned of the threat to the Nation of the irresponsible exercise of freedom. On Jan. 27, 1838, before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln is quoted as saying, “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

Those Americans, even in the early days of the pandemic, who chose to ignore social distancing or the wearing of masks as an affront to their right to assemble, or as an abridgment of their right to religious liberty were reading the Constitution with horse blinders on.

They were not securing the blessings of liberty; they were ignoring the general welfare of the American people. They were contributing to the sickness and deaths of their fellow Americans by ignoring social distancing and mask wearing.

“We the People”, instituted and ordained in our Constitution, gave government express authority, “to promote the General Welfare” of the American people in every generation.” Public health falls well within the scope of the General Welfare Clause.

Delegating to government authorities the lawful mandate to promote the general welfare of the American people, did not then, nor does it now absolve us from acting responsibly to promote that same general welfare. No freedom gifted to humanity by Divine Providence is granted to us unfettered, unqualified or unconditional. With each freedom comes the responsibility to exercise that freedom in harmony with the rights of our fellow citizens; nor is any American’s personal freedom superior to any other American’s freedom, especially if the exercise of that freedom during a pandemic will endanger the health of other Americans.

Our latest challenge and test of our responsible exercise of freedom is the obligation to be vaccinated. American innovation and industry has blessed us with overwhelmingly safe vaccines. It has been injected into billions of people around the world and to millions of, but not enough Americans to achieve herd immunity.

I can think of no other moral purpose higher than assuring the health of our fellow citizens by responsible behavior and respecting when to voluntarily and temporarily refrain from exercising our freedom. Doing so will assure the general welfare of our fellow citizens. We do it all the time out of love for our family members. We need to do it for our American family as well in these pandemic times.

“We the American people”, not the government, are the masters of our fate and destiny. Smart, wise, judicious and responsible exercise of our freedom with concern for our fellow Americans, including our children, should guide us to get “jabbed” even if we are free not to do so.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, the responsible exercise of our freedom will assure us, that as a free nation we will live through all time and not die by suicide.

If you wish to comment or respond you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner.

Mel Pearlman holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in physics as well as a J.D. degree and initially came to Florida in 1966 to work on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. He has practiced law in Central Florida since 1972. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; was a charter board member, first vice president and pro-bono legal counsel of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as holding many other community leadership positions.