Keep Government Out.

• Author: Smith, G. Keith
• Position: Public safety

SINCE POLITICIANS are fond of telling us where we can go and how we must behave, especially during a pandemic, we must have faith that these officials care about our health and that government and medical practice can be blended and work well together... right? Well, before we grant government more control over our well-being, I believe we should look at how it has cared for us in the past.

In the 1920s, for instance, Uncle Sam deliberately poisoned, by some counts, 250,000 Americans. As its interdiction efforts during Prohibition largely were failing, the Federal government simply required the addition of methanol to industrial alcohol it knew would be diverted for drinking purposes. Many died, developed kidney failure, or went blind from methanol's effects on the optic nerve. (This is where the saying "blind drunk" originated.)

Any time a politician or bureaucrat demands a surrender of freedoms in the interest of our safety, I cannot help but think about our government's murderous past. Prohibition was not the only time that the Federal government thought deliberately killing Americans was a good idea. Pres. John F. Kennedy spared many lives when he rejected the deliberate shooting down of a U.S. jetliner in a false flag attack the Pentagon dubbed Operation Northwoods. Cubans were to be blamed, providing a justification for the invasion of their island.

Why aren't any claims by the government that it has our best health interests at heart met with skepticism, when targeting Americans has historically been actual policy? A short editorial cannot begin to accommodate a fraction of the murderous lies that have been promoted by those who "want to keep us safe."

We must distinguish those who claim our safety is a priority, but obviously do not mean it, from those who make the claim and do mean it: the vast majority of medical professionals. We should guard against intermixing groups with these disparate objectives. When was the last time you heard a politician admit to an error? Not some "I'm rethinking this" sort of whitewash, but a forthright "I was dead wrong" statement and "I'm sorry."

Physicians, in contrast, make a diagnosis, implement preliminary treatment, then look for any and every sign and lab result that would prove them wrong. Savvy doctors also rely on experienced nurses to...