OPINION:
Pete Parada, drummer of The Offspring, has been kicked off his band’s back-to-business, back-to-near-normalcy, post-coronavirus tour because he refuses — for personal medical decisions made in part with his personal medical doctor — to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
In other words: He’s been segregated by an increasingly tyrannical segment of society that is one short step shy of turning America into communist China.
Welcome to post-coronavirus hell, the place where the power-hungry are having quite the heyday, chastising, shaming and, apparently, firing and segregating those who dare exert any bit of critical thinking, individual choice or, God forbid, action that defies the drone-like catcalls of government and government sheep: “Vaccinate. Vaccinate. Vaccinate.”
Parada took to Twitter to explain his dilemma and his decisions. And it’s so sane in its pro-freedom stance, perhaps the bigger story here is that he’s not yet been booted from Twitter.
Anyhow, he wrote: “Since I am unable to comply with what is increasingly becoming an industry mandate — it has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour. I mention this because you won’t be seeing me at these upcoming shows.”
The shows to which he referred are The Offspring’s comeback tour through the United Kingdom, Ireland and other spots.
Parada, as a sufferer of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disease the affects the immune and nerve systems, consulted with his private doctor about the vaccine and was warned not to take it because of the potential for adverse health complications. He agreed. For that, he’s been shifted off The Offspring’s tour.
He’s been, in effect, fired.
“I do not find it ethical or wise to allow those with the most power (government, corporations, organizations, employers) to dictate medical procedures to those with the least power,” Parada tweeted.
And this: “There are countless folks (like me) for whom these shots carry a greater risk than the virus. Most of us don’t publicly share a private decision we made in careful consideration with our doctors,” he tweeted.
And this: “While my reason for not getting this jab is medical, I want to make sure I’m not carving out a space that is only big enough for me. I need to state, unequivocally, that I support informed consent — which necessitates choice unburdened by coercion,” he tweeted,
And this: “I also want to share my story so that anyone else experiencing the agony and isolation of getting left behind right now — knows they’re not entirely alone.”
What a sad and sorry state of things America is in right now.
Who would have believed just a few short years ago this country, supposed land of the free, supposed light to the world, would force its own citizens to take an experimental vaccine, one that’s still only approved under a federal emergency use authorization — and segregate those who refuse?
Medical choice is at the heart of individual freedom. If one can’t decide for one’s self whether or not to take part in a government-sponsored, government-backed vaccine experiment, then can it honestly be said that said “one” truly has freedom? Truly is free?
“I have no negative feelings towards my band,” Parada tweeted. “They’re doing what they believe is best for them, while I am doing the same. Wishing the entire Offspring family all the best as they get back at it!”
That’s called taking the high road.
But what the government’s doing with the vaccines — the government and private businesses in cahoots with the government — is called “turning America communist.”
It’s only in dictatorial societies where government forces citizens to partake in medical experiments. It’s only in police states where those in leadership seize freedoms from those who refuse to cede individual choice — from those who refuse to obey. It’s only in abhorrently unfree countries where governments who do all this then have the gall to turn around and claim it’s for the good of the citizens they force.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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