DAN SCHINHOFEN: Bill of Rights?

Back in January when the “novel coronavirus” was finally making the news, after the debacle of impeachment was over, I was very interested as I watched the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shut down a city with 35 million residents. My first reaction was, “This could never happen in America as we have a Bill of Rights.” Boy was I wrong.

While the “lockdowns” which were at first not mandatory, started to take shape here in America were troubling, I was not very troubled because they only “asked us” to take two weeks to “flatten the curve”. Two weeks with 70% of us not working was something I felt could be done and so, like so many of us, I went along.

Right away they started doing things that made no sense at all like close down playgrounds. So, kids were out of school, but we could not take them to the park. We knew that the virus dies within a minute when exposed to the sunlight and the guidelines from the CDC started that we should “social distance” if we were face to face with someone for 10 to 30 minutes. (Masks were not being pushed at this time.) When Fauci and others suddenly changed their minds on mask they were to only be worn IF you could not social distance.

Even at this point I began to question just what the hell was really going on and as the months wore on it was clear that the government had no intention of setting us free again. Most people though were blissfully unaware of the issues I saw and soon it became clear to me that while we did have a Bill of Rights which enumerated, our God Given Rights, the Governors of many states seemed to believe that those “inalienable rights” could be taken away if they simply declared an emergency.

In our state of Nevada the law that allows a governor to declare an emergency did at least call out a provision for guns. That being gun and ammo shops and anything else having to do with guns were not to be infringed on. While this gave me some solace it did not, however, give those same protections for our other “inalienable rights” like free exercise of religion. It did seem strange that the right to “peaceable assemble” was not in question as long as you were protesting against the police.

When our governor began to dictate to religious groups how many and what kind of worship would be “allowed” it was very clear to me that he did not have the authority to take away rights that were, as the founders put it, given by god.

When the founders were writing our present Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation many of them balked at it as it did not have, at that time, a Bill of Rights. They felt that our God given rights had to be protected from an over reaching Federal Government and so when the Bill of Rights were added, the Constitution we all now know and love was well received and by many. To me it set up the best system of government the world has ever known.

Even in the Nevada state constitution the right to worship and to own and protect property are called out an yet we have all watched with horror as our governor began to dictate to us how to worship and that many of us that owned businesses were not going to be able to make use of our property to provide for our families. Funnier still was many people just took it as if he had that right and even church leaders were eerily mum,

A friend of mine that runs some publications here in our State told me that he did not receive many letters complaining about the infringement of their religion, but when Emperor Sisolak decided that Golf Courses had to shut down he got flooded with complaints. (Just shows where are priorities are.)

Back to the beginning now with the CCP shutting down a city of 35 million. Many of us have been horrified as we have watched governors across this nation taking away our inalienable rights under the guise of protecting us “for our own good”. Even more surprising to me was how many people have remained silent about it, including religious leaders.

I once thought that this country would never stand for such a blatant taking of our rights, but alas I was wrong. Asking us to limit religious gatherings is fine and asking us to not use or run our business is fine too, but by allowing one man to dictate new “laws” and fines is so antithetical to our Constitution and God given rights it literally has made me sick.

Yes, the “Novel Corona Virus” or SARS-2 has taken some lives, but are we really so afraid of a virus with a 99.6% chance of survival worth giving up our freedoms for? The National Institute of Health has a Study from 2015 which clearly shows cloth face coverings allow 97% of particulate matter through and can be hazardous to your health wearing them for long periods of time. Masks are not the answer as we have seen many people that wear them still get sick and surprise people are still getting the virus. (Remember 97% of crap gets through them.)

The numbers of those that have died from or with this virus include those who died from pneumonia, influenza, other respiratory ailments or just if you exhibited signs of the virus, which are much the same as a flu. For God’s sake it is, after all, a flu virus and yet we have caved into dictators while many of our states’ legislators, who are supposed to represent us, sit on the sidelines and allow these Emperors to continue to violate their oaths of office and our, what were at one time, inalienable rights.

In a free country I thought this could never happen. What I had hoped for was that, like our President did, they would give us the facts and encourage us to not be face to face with people for 10-30 minutes, but if we could not avoid that then cover our mouths when we coughed or sleeve our sneeze, but these dictators do not think we are capable of doing this on our own so they have taken our rights while many of you cheer them on.

“After all, it is for our own good, isn’t it? “

Not one life has been saved by having our rights taken away, but many have been ruined and may never recover thanks to the hysteria of the media and the traitors that now sit in governors’ offices around this country.

“Those who would trade their rights for temporary safety deserve neither.” Ben Franklin. When asked what form of government the Continental Congress had given us, Franklin replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

It seems that we now know we have no rights and that many have gladly traded their rights for temporary safety. It appears to me that Joe Biden is the right man to “oversee” this fundamental transformation of our country from a Republic to some kind of European Socialist Disaster.

If we ever needed god’s blessings it is now.

Dan Schinhofen is a former Nye County commissioner.

Opinions expressed in this work may not reflect those of the Pahrump Valley Times.