Big Brother Twisting Your Arm

Here it comes, employees of the government will no longer have control of their own bodies. According to this story from Newsday government health employees will not have a choice when it comes to the h1n1 vaccine.

Despite a planned rally in Albany Tuesday to protest a state regulation
requiring health care workers be vaccinated against influenza — both seasonal
and swine flu — New York’s top public
health official predicts dissenters will ultimately extinguish their anger and
roll up their sleeves.
The regulation, which was approved in August, comes
with a stinging addendum: Get vaccinated or get fired.

I have mixed feelings about this because the entire premise is screwed up.

First, I believe the employee/employer relationship works like this; the employer has the right to demand their employees do anything that isn't against the law. For example, many employers do not allow their employees to smoke, and will fire them if they discover they are doing so. They do this based on the premise that smoking employees get ill more often and cause cost increases in insurance. This is fine. If you are not comfortable with what the employer requires then you are free to find employment elsewhere.

In a normal situation the government via the judicial system is there to stand between the employee and employer to ensure there are no breaches of the constitution.

In this case the employer is the government, and as the government gobbles up more and more of the private sector you may soon find yourself unable to escape employer demanded vaccines. Followed presumably by further intrusions into your liberty.

Admitting a Mistake

Directly following 9-11 I was filled with a flood of emotion. They were mixed. My initial reaction was one of fear, but within hours it was replaced with anger and pride. I was indignant that someone would come to my country with an intent of harming my fellow countrymen and women. I can only imagine that others felt the same. At that moment I was willing to hunt them down and string them up for all to see as an example to those who would plot harm against us in the future.

As a nation we reacted much the same way. We gathered up our warriors and sent them on a mission to hunt down those responsible. In addition we passed sweeping legislation nearly immediately granting our government the ability to bypass our bill of rights.

At the time I was on board. I was wrong. At the time I didn't see this as handing over our rights willingly, but rather as a tool to hunt down terrorist. In short I was trusting our government to use the powers it was granted by congress, and thus the people, wisely.

The Patriot Act which had a sunset, but continues to be renewed, says that the FBI need not show probable cause, nor even reasonable grounds to believe, that the person whose records it seeks is engaged in criminal activity. It also allows for further investigation by the FBI if they simply don't like the books you are checking out from the library, or what you are writing on your blog for that matter.

This was a mistake. It was passed through Congress based on our fear. We were wrong. We should have headed the warnings of those sounding the alarm that we were giving up our civil liberties.

Do I still believe in hunting down those responsible. Yes. I do not believe we should change who we are to do so.