Andy Young: Stop government overreach! (Except sometimes)

By Andy Young

Like most Americans, I want minimal government involvement in my life, but there are rare occasions when I would welcome some meddling from the authorities, specifically when we the people have shown beyond the shadow of a doubt that we require collective guidance.

The most recent example of timely government intervention occurred in 2020. While nearly one million Americans have died due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic (982,809 thru April 10, according to the CDC), the toll would have been exponentially higher had it not been for federal, state and local masking requirements, not to mention the role government played in getting millions of people vaccinated against the virus as quickly as possible.

The only upside of the pandemic was that with no one going anywhere, gas prices plunged. Avaricious petroleum dealers were, for a time, forced to all but give away the gasoline they had on hand.

But COVID seems to be receding. Concerts and sports events are playing to full houses, mask mandates have been rolled back, and Big Oil is more than making up for the losses they absorbed in 2020 by hiking the prices of gas and home heating fuel to unprecedented levels.

There are, however, other issues that have nothing to do with any viruses.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute reported that the average sea surface temperature in the gulf during September, October, and November of 2021 was, at 59.9 degrees Fahrenheit, four degrees higher than the long-term average temperature. That makes it, according to Dave Reidmiller, director of the GMRI climate center, “among the fastest-warming bodies of water in the world.”

This past Sunday I observed nine vehicles waiting in line at the drive-up window at Starbucks in South Portland when I walked by at about 10 a.m. The ones at the back of the queue (and those who later followed them) all waited, engines running, for 10 or more minutes for their overpriced, elaborately named caffeine hits. Two weeks earlier when I went by the same place at the same time there were 13 vehicles (11 of which were small trucks or SUV’s) lingering there.

Rational people recognize the role hydrocarbon emissions play in climate change, and everyone (rational and otherwise) knows gas prices are skyrocketing these days. Furthermore, anyone who walks, runs, bikes or drives on well-traveled roads is likely repelled by the amount of litter that lines all too many of America’s not-so-scenic roadways, and a closer examination of all that detritus reveals that the vast majority of it comes from fast-food outlets.

So why are so many people willing to, at significant expense, let their idling engines further pollute the environment?

Addiction to caffeine and fast food is part of the answer. So is laziness, since nearly every product one acquires at Starbucks, McDonald’s and other fast-food emporiums can be made at home, and often at a fraction of the cost one pays at the drive-up window. Also, corporate fast-food purveyors have no intention of reducing their already stratospheric profits without a fight, and they’ve got countless elected officials whose campaigns they’ve contributed to that are all too eager to wage it for them.

But the biggest reason people continue to pollute and spend too much on products they don't need while waiting inside their idling motor vehicles is because they still can.

An America free of drive-up windows would be cleaner, healthier and significantly better off environmentally.

I wish our overreaching government would leave us alone.

Except for now, when I wish they’d exhibit some common sense, show some backbone and outlaw drive-up windows. <

Insight: Two kinds of people

By Ed Pierce

Managing Editor

Growing up, my father used to tell me that while serving in the Army during World War II he found there were two types of people in the world, those who are rational and think things out and others who are confused and choose to disregard opportunities to learn and improve.

Over the years I’ve come to appreciate my father’s sentiments about people and I’ve strived to be a member of the “rational” group. I’m no great philosopher and make mistakes like everybody else, but I do make an effort to try to use what I’ve learned in life to simply continue to live.

This past weekend, I was reminded of the difference between rational and confused. While on a Zoom session with family members living out of state, we discussed getting vaccinated for coronavirus.

My wife Nancy and I have now had both of our shots of the Pfizer vaccine and will soon reach the two-week point for maximum effectiveness. The family members we were visiting with on Zoom reside in the deep southern part of the United States and are considerably younger than us. As a result, I did not think prior to this Zoom session that they would have had an opportunity to receive the vaccine.  

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that their state opened up vaccinations more than a month ago to all age groups and that they were fully immunized. One of these relatives mentioned that his 20-year-old daughter also had been vaccinated and so were his parents, although they were extremely reluctant to do so, but eventually gave in and received the shots.

But there was one holdout. Seems this relative’s sister refused to be immunized against coronavirus, saying we’re all going to die some day and she wasn’t going to let some health official dictate to her whether she should get the vaccine or not.

That statement made me think of my father’s statement about two types of people in the world and how fortunate I am to be surrounded by rational people.

Both my wife and I experienced little to no side effects from the vaccine. While my arm was sore for a little while, it always is whenever I get a flu shot by injection. I wasn’t overly tired or lethargic and both my wife and I each went to work the very next day.

Now we have some measure of protection against the virus and are hopeful that we will have plenty of antibodies to ward it off should we meet someone who does have it.

But what about those people who choose not to be immunized?

The freedom to choose is an underlying foundation of American society and deciding not to receive the vaccine is your right, but in my opinion is a moral failure and evidence of disregard for your fellow man.

Weighing a mistrust of modern science or fearing a negative reaction to the vaccine is understandable, but when put up against the public good and the undeniable personal health benefits in this instance, it pales in comparison.

For vaccination skeptics, I ask you to consider how much has been lost in the last year because of the virus and how we all yearn to return to a more normalized way of life.

It’s really a matter of mathematics when you get right down to it. As the pool of potential virus hosts and transmitters shrinks as more and more of the population is immunized, simple math reveals that the virus will go to where it can survive and thrive among those who have not been vaccinated.

The greatest benefit we will all derive when a majority of Americans are fully vaccinated is the immunity against this awful virus that has claimed so many lives and disrupted our daily lives, our economy and our ability to connect with those we love.

The choice between saving lives and preserving the individual freedom of refusing to be vaccinated is moot.

I truly long to go to a major league baseball game once more, to feel safe dining indoors at a restaurant, to shake hands with someone I’ve just met for the first time and to drive to Connecticut to spend time with family and our grandchild.

I fear that those who reject simplistic public health measures such as wearing a mask or going to receive the vaccine all to make a point about individual liberty will end up on the wrong side of history and continue to prolong this pandemic even further. <