Common Sense

There is good reason why I never post on Facebook, but this week I felt compelled to do so, and now I am being challenged to back up my personal beliefs, which is fair I suppose.
I thought long and hard about how I wanted to approach this, and decided that responding on FB was not the answer, first of all, because the unprecedented censorship being exercised by these platforms today makes me fearful of our future, but second of all, because I do not want to start another argument with someone. I will find a different way to voice my beliefs, perhaps simply through my actions, exercising my beliefs and rights, and teaching my children to do the same.
What I do want to convey to those of you out there, including my friends and family, who are collectively referring to people as “anti-maskers” or “anti-vaccers” (no idea if that is even a word or how to spell it but people are using it!), calling us radical, dangerous and ignorant, to understand our motivation and why we remain so passionate, even in the face of so much resistance. I am simply going to write from a non-scientific, only slightly political place that I like to call “common sense.”
I have never been any of the above, radical, dangerous (unless you count riding a motorcycle), or ignorant to the world around me, this is truly the first time in my life where I have taken a stance that is not “mainstream” or “popular,” and it is very uncomfortable to say the least! Segregation in the form of race, religion, and sex is something we are fighting across so many arenas right now, but the division being caused by the pandemic is creating segregation of a whole new dimension, to the point where politicians, the people we elect to represent us, make statements suggesting they will not entertain our ideas or suggestions and will simply shut us down. Why, what are they afraid of, and when did we stop debating and listening to each other? There is simply not enough reason or proof as to why our constitution has been deemed null and void.
I was asked to present what I have read, the sources of my information and the reasons behind my beliefs, but for every article I have read there is an opposing opinion or fact out there and I am not afraid to admit that I don’t know what is true and what is not, and yes, everything I’ve read that hasn’t been fed to me by mainstream media has been written by noteworthy doctors and scientist from across the world, some of who are risking their reputations, careers, and livelihoods to speak out. Sadly, most of their views are not shared on mainstream media, heard behind the closed doors of our political institutions where our future is being determined, or considered in any way as having validity. Two why’s, why do these people bringing forth information feel so strongly that they are willing to risk everything to speak out, and why are they being silenced and ridiculed? My gut, which I usually trust, tells me something just isn’t quite right. I have never seen so many posts that you read one day be “unavailable” or “removed” the next. It actually doesn’t even matter if they are right or wrong, or even partially right or wrong, or if someone believes that COVID is caused by pink mosquitoes and can be cured only through the sting of a green mosquito, it is our responsibility to ask ourselves why their ideas are not being considered, let alone published or used, why they can’t get an audience with their elected representatives or march peacefully in the hopes that they might make a difference.
I was speaking with some friends from Venezuela recently, who grew up in a world where you couldn’t question anything, without the rights and freedoms we “were” so used to here in North America, controlled by their government, where you didn’t have to wonder if an election was rigged, it was common knowledge that it would be rigged and that the popular vote would never prevail. That is the world they left, and it is not the world I want to