Freedom sacrifices
Dear Editor,
Citizens of non-democratic nations sometimes taste and enjoy samples of democracy’s sweetness, either through international travel or Western images missed by their Government’s Internet censorship of their respective homelands.
That those samples cannot be unexperienced is potentially very problematic for authoritarian/totalitarian governments.
With greater, democratic liberties typically comes weaker national security, and vice versa. While I wouldn’t readily exchange my Western freedoms for such national security, it is still foolish to pretend a national security sacrifice isn’t being made in exchange.
For example, watching the small amount of news feed leaving China in late autumn 2019, one could see TV images of some citizens being literally dragged — a few even by their legs — back into their residences to help contain novel coronavirus transmission.
As the months passed and COVID-19 became a rampant pandemic, I couldn’t help but notice how China’s strict handling of its own outbreak, while allowing little rights and freedoms to its people (and maybe even internal/external big business), likely enabled a relatively short duration of its initial crisis.
Point to note.
Frank Sterle Jr
White Rock, BC
Canada
fgsjr2010@hotmail.com