With one day to go, we have a choice.

A choice for or against the "old normal."

Which is another way to say freedom. The freedom to attend school in person, the freedom to go to college without being treated as a prisoner in one's own dorm...

The freedom to hang out with friends and relatives with or without masks. The freedom to travel between states and countries without being subjected to quarantines. The freedom to run a business as you see fit and have customers decide for themselves what risks to take...

The freedom to assemble at church or synagogue or mosque. The freedom to sing prayer or shout blasphemy. The freedom to come together by the tens of thousands to cheer on a candidate or team. The freedom (as an adult) to take or decline a vaccine...

The freedom to attend school in person whether you are rich or poor and have access to private schools or not. The freedom to go to college without being treated as a prisoner in one's own dorm.

And this is WITHOUT the broad lockdowns much of Europe is once again imposing...

The public health establishment would be happy enough to take away ALL those freedoms. For a virus that is essentially harmless to most of us, causing no or very mild symptoms in most cases. A virus whose dangers are broadly in line with the flu.

A virus that will kill between 1 in 750 and 1 in 400 of the people who contract it, with most of those people being very old, sick, or both. A virus that has never come close to crashing our hospitals or health-care system - the original reason for lockdowns...