What is freedom, after all? | News, Sports, Jobs – Lock Haven Express

KAREN ELIAS

Lock Haven

An Open letter to 76th state Rep. Stephanie Borowicz:

Dear Rep. Borowicz, Ive been thinking about Harriet Tubman. Devoutly religious and guided by revelations from God, she escaped from slavery and then returned to the south 13 times, braving the most dangerous conditions to help family members and friends escape to freedom.

I know you know about her because I heard you say, in a recent talk, that the movie Harriet was an inspiration to you someone who sees herself, like Harriet Tubman, leading her people to freedom, guided by divine inspiration.

But with all due respect, these are false equivalences, and ones whose repercussions are being felt right now in dangerous ways in our Pennsylvania communities.

The idea of freedom is being shamelessly bandied about by you and some of your fellow Republicans to characterize the Covid mandates issued by Governor Wolf as an unconstitutional overreach from which we must liberate! ourselves. In making this argument, you appear able to brush aside (seemingly without concern for those affected) the facts in front of us: That Covid cases are growing alarmingly across the country as states open up too soon, before having the virus safely under control.

As of this writing, the United States has over 3 million confirmed cases, with more new cases being reported every day in 41 of our 50 states. At least 24 states have paused or rolled back their reopening plans as deaths from the virus increase once again.

This, in itself, would be cause for concern as some folks in our community respond with venomous fury to the latest guidelines from our governor, making the case under your direction that their personal freedom is at stake and that nothing and no one will make them wear a mask.

Couching mask-wearing as a battle for freedom is a cynical attempt on the part of those on the right to formulate a life-and-death public health issue as a battle between true-blooded Americans and some imagined threat from the far left, in order to posit Republicans as innocent victims of a supposed power-grab.

But what else is concerning is that this battle is going on while African Americans and their allies are flooding the streets of our country to protest systems of racist policing that along with an entire litany, an entire catalogue, of oppressions have worked to keep Blacks decidedly unfree for hundreds of years.

Your own calls for freedom ring hollow in light of these realities.

Is your battle to cancel a temporary mandate to wear a mask the same as having to wage a civil war to rid the country of slavery?

Is your rage over the supposed curtailment of individual liberties the same as the terror evoked by years of lynching, racial cleansing, fire hoses, attack dogs, fire bombings, and cross burnings?

Is your frustration over not being able to walk bare-faced down the Main Street of your town the same as the despair Blacks must feel after centuries of having their mobility curtailed, their dreams deferred, their movements policed?

What is freedom, after all? I believe Harriet Tubman, one of Americas true freedom fighters, would agree that the fight for so-called liberation that you are waging is, in fact, a travesty.

If you should choose to join the battle for equal justice and opportunity for all, you would be most welcome. This fight is far from over, and it will take the good will of our elected representatives to enact much needed change.

In the meantime, Representative Borowicz, there is no knee on your neck.

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