The City Council Is Considering Another Lockdown…
Last week the City of Lawton participated in an open virtual town hall meeting with the public where they answered many of the questions rolling around the heads of the citizenry here. It was all related to Covid-19, the pandemic, and the plans they have to address a global pandemic on the local scale.
The biggest question on every mind was centered around another lockdown. A stay-at-home order like we endured in April for the people, mandatory closings of businesses for our small-business operating people. While they did say there was no plan for something like this to happen again, they also wouldn't cast it off the table. Seeing how they were so eager to adopt these controversial policies earlier this year, it's absolutely something we can't let them slip on again.
Here's the thing, if Summer 2020 taught us anything it's this... No matter how big the police force is or how big the city is, stay-at-home orders and lockdowns cannot be enforced. How many huge cities experienced mass protesting this year all while being cast under these same stay-at-home/lockdown orders? And did the citizens stay at home? No. And what did those cities do to enforce their own order? Nothing. They understood that going to war with the citizens they are supposed to serve isn't possible in the realm of the job. That's why, even if Lawton again adopts a lockdown/stay-at-home policy going forward, we can choose to obey it, but we don't "have" to obey it.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a denier of the rona. I still believe we should focus 100% of our efforts on social distancing until we can reach heard immunity with the vaccine... it's more important than masks in my correct and logical opinion. Because masks don't prevent you from contracting the virus, they limit the cloud of germs you expel when you're sick... If you're not socially distant, masks don't work at all. You can't catch germs if you're not around anybody.
All the same, if another tyrannical stay-at-home order does end up coming down, why would we assume they wouldn't? These elected officials already know they're not winning a reelection at this point, what do they have to lose right? They can talk as much as they want to about there being no plan to pass such a measure... again... but what's the one common trait of every politician? Lies. When they do issue that order, just remember, there is absolutely nothing the city can do to enforce it. They can't stop all of us.