Disclaimer: The following article is the sole opinion of Arthur Helms. ZWN and it's affiliates do not influence, endorse nor are accountable for Mr. Helms opinions.


The greater Miami area is having a tough time of it. It wasn’t easy there for police, municipal and safety service workers before the recent Mortosis outbreak, and there’s no reason to think it would be any better now. Miami has been plagued with violent, well-funded and well-armed gangs for several decades now, and not the stylish killers and exotic cars of Crocket and Tubbs’s days. More than anything, the recent gun battle between these dealers and killers and the National Guard illustrates an erosion of respect for authority and the common good that has been land sliding since the late 1960’s.
I would expect the same type of thing to happen in any major city under any type of quarantine, Mortosis or otherwise. We have many groups that have now come out with torches and pitchforks raised to tell us that the quarantine and roadblock system is “unfair” and “over-zealous”. I have a few problems with that.

It is certainly “unfair” that the good people of Miami have been forced into this situation. It would be unfair to any city anywhere in the world. But fairness is not on the menu, especially where a virus as contagious and destructive as Necro-Mortosis is concerned. How fair would the ACLU and other “rights” groups see it to loosen the checkpoints and health screenings only to have the plague slip through a politically correct version of the quarantine? Wouldn’t that be a violation of the civil rights of every other person in the country? Isn’t government protection from wholesale annihilation a civil right? In a situation like this, the definition of the word “fair” is reduced to a descriptor for the weather. If the plague reaches out past Miami, the entire south eastern portion of the United States could be compromised. To the people of Miami, you have my hopes, my sympathies and my prayers. But logic dictates that should the roadblocks falter or the screening process be rushed, there won’t be anywhere else left to run. Florida did the only truly “fair” thing it could in establishing checkpoints and screenings that allow people to evacuate the city. Citizens in many other countries that have suffered or currently suffer from outbreaks aren’t given that option. The process is slow, plodding and methodical by design to keep the plague from spreading to the rest of the nation.

Now on to the “over-zealous” response by enforcement guards at the I 95 checkpoint earlier this week. Before we call their actions over-zealous, let’s look at a few plain facts, shall we? These people were armed criminals, as well-armed as the guards working the checkpoint. Isn’t it obvious to anyone with more than a 2nd grade education that these men were not typical, moral, law-abiding upstanding citizens of the city of Miami? They came in a caravan of large, tough vehicles armed to the teeth with illegal automatic weapons. It’s obvious their intent was to blow through the checkpoint using their vehicles and weapons, and even more obvious that they didn’t care who they would have to hurt or kill to accomplish this. And I firmly believe that they weren’t fleeing the plague, and they weren’t trying to get their families out of harm’s way. Why, you ask? Did anyone other than me notice that a huge amount of illegal narcotics was on-board as well? These men weren’t trying to escape the plague. A side effect of the quarantine system is that not only are people regulated into and out of the quarantined area, products and services are as well. Whether it’s widgets, motor oil or illegal drugs, you can’t sell it if you can’t ship it. The quarantine must have blocked off their regular shipping methods. This attempt to get through the quarantine had nothing to do with a panicked populace trying to get their families to safety and everything to do with illegal commerce. It nearly sickens me to think that these so-called rights groups didn’t even flinch from their argument after learning of their cargo and the fact that no wives, significant others or even children were present. Hey, rights groups, you’re defending the rights of drug dealers to smash through bona fide, necessary quarantine measures and their right to blast a bunch of men and women trying to protect their state and the rest of us from the plague just so they can make their drug delivery. When the situation goes from red to green in Miami, then by all means fire away with the politically-slanted lawsuits and rallies. But until then, let these people do their jobs.

And lastly we move on to the wholesale erosion of respect for authority in the United States. It seems every week there’s new, shocking footage of police officers subduing someone with pepper spray, tasers or just plain old pile-on tactics. Invariably, you will see these stories plastered across the news and the ‘net. But if you listen to the audio at all of these “miscarriages of justice”, you will most often hear officers telling these suspects to stop struggling, to lay down or other commands designed to calm the situation and take someone into custody with as little harm to the suspect and the arresting officers as can be had. If the officer tells you to stop, you stop. If he tells you to move, you move. Our entitlement culture has not only softened our work ethic, it has made us believe that we are somehow special and different enough that we don’t have to respond to authority like everyone else does. We’re not. Get all the piercings and tattoos you want, listen to whatever music you want and generally go after life and liberty and pursue happiness as the founding fathers intended. But when it comes to breaking the law, placing others in danger due to our own selfishness or a crisis of global proportions, get in line with the rest of us and wait your turn. And to those people, I have news for you; Necro-Mortosis doesn’t think you’re special. It wants you dead regardless of who you voted for, what you smoke, how much money you make or what color your hair may be. We have to combat it in the same manner it combats us; all or nothing.

Arthur Helms is a syndicated columnist who has dealt with a host of social and political issues. His previous syndicated column, “Logic, Please?” offered commentary on a host of world-view issues as seen through the cold yet bright light of plain logic, demonstrated fact and simple common sense.

While the academic and political elite often dismissed his commentary as “too simplistic” for our complicated times, his books of collected columns and hundreds of national speaking engagements each year attest to his connection to a readership yearning for simple answers to complex issues. Helms recently ended his syndicated column to sign on exclusively with Zombie World News, providing a fresh, logical,
plain-English view of the plague and to bring some common sense to what many perceive to be a senseless situation.

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