SHOLEH: General welfare key

Thanks to Sholeh Patrick for her informative column, “Vaccine mandates aren’t new.”

I have been watching and listening to both sides for the better part of two years. I can remember sitting in a high school civics/current events course. Some of the ideas that I took away from that class are:

1) We do have many freedoms granted to us in the Constitution.

2) Paraphrasing Eleanor Roosevelt, “With great freedom comes great responsibility.”

3) I am not allowed to trample on others’ rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if they do not agree with mine.

Other sources of early learning taught me that I am my brother’s keeper, that all men are my brothers, and I should treat others with dignity and respect.

I have not seen the above principles being practiced by either side with regard to mask mandates, vaccination use or any of the accompanying petty issues people are screaming about.

My hope is that people on both sides search their hearts and find a way to come together to combat this health crisis. There have been numerous times when Americans have sacrificed individual wants and needs in order to promote the general welfare and provide for the greater good of those less fortunate.

MICHAEL O’DONNELL

Coeur d’Alene