A virus is not human, but how you react to it is a measure of humanity. The United States has not fared well. Hundreds of thousands of its citizens have died needlessly. America is supposed to be the land of freedom, but disease and fear make us less free. Freedom is impossible when we are too sick to think of happiness and too weak to pursue it. Therefore, if a government deprives us of health, it is also taking away our freedom. On December 29, 2019, historian Timothy Snyder fell seriously ill. As he clung to life, he ...
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A virus is not human, but how you react to it is a measure of humanity. The United States has not fared well. Hundreds of thousands of its citizens have died needlessly. America is supposed to be the land of freedom, but disease and fear make us less free. Freedom is impossible when we are too sick to think of happiness and too weak to pursue it. Therefore, if a government deprives us of health, it is also taking away our freedom. On December 29, 2019, historian Timothy Snyder fell seriously ill. As he clung to life, he reflected on the fragility of health, which in the United States is not recognized as a human right, but without which rights and freedoms are meaningless. And that was shortly before the pandemic. Since then we have seen hospitals, understaffed and underequipped, collapse under the waves of coronavirus patients. The federal government made the situation worse with a mixture of willful ignorance, misinformation, and speculation. The lessons that Snyder offers in this book, based on the reflections and experiences that he recorded in his hospital diary, are addressed to all of us, wherever we are. Only if we recognize health care as a human right, enhance the authority of doctors and truth, give knowledge the importance it deserves, and plan for the future of our children, can we be truly free. Freedom belongs to each individual. But to be free we need to be healthy, and to be healthy we need each other.
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