I took a lot of heat (and received plenty of compliments) from my last column titled “The lost art of the follow-up question.” 

The heat wasn’t from the topic, but rather the tone. For some reason, my tone had people telling me, “This is why our country is so divided.” It’s as if I was a billionaire from New York City and all of the sudden the tone everyone loved in a public figure was the reason for all of our ills in the United States.  

The tone in my column wasn’t a reflection of me — since I kinda always have one — but rather a reflection of those I oppose as being on the wrong side of freedom. That doesn’t mean I won’t end up on the wrong side of winning in the latest version of “How COVID (read government) stole your freedom.” I have been for a while. 

It’s because I’m among the few fighting the biggest bully on the block: government. Worse, I’m fighting arbitrary government. And arbitrary government is the worst version. The people who espouse it, project it and use government to enforce it on others are the hardest to deal with because of their ever-changing views as to why I must acquiesce to their wanton needs and desires. 

It’s also because I presented my argument in their tone (slathered in sarcasm). And if there’s one thing folks hate in an argument, it’s being talked to in the manner they present themselves. After all, it might result in them asking questions about their stance on a given topic, and they can never have that. This is what happens when one’s beliefs become their persona. It literally becomes a fight to the death. But the only thing dying is freedom. 

So here are two ditties resulting from my conversations in the two Americas that exist in their highest form on Satan’s most divisive tool ever contrived: Facebook. 

First up was this response after I stated there are many ways to achieve herd immunity and not just with 100 percent vaccine compliance: 

“Craig Hall why don’t you just start pushing old people down in parking lots and running over disabled and children when you’re in a hurry? And no big deal when somebody wants to make a buck selling opiods (sic) on the black market cuz (sic) who cares if people overdose? I’m so tired of people like you.” 

Well, okey dokey then. This is where I get confused. Instead of asking what I mean, this person used the tone referred to in my previous column.  As with my column detractors, they didn’t attack my point, but rather me with a pretty harsh insult.  

My take is simple. The follow-up question is pretty easy. It’s: “What do you mean?” And in a civil, don’t call me a murderer tone. Here’s the deal. We’ve gone from 15 days to slow the spread to social distancing to mandated masks to closing “non-essential” businesses to maybe we can open if we meet arbitrary practices our competitors can’t afford to therapeutics work but don’t work or kill people to banning them never to be talked about again to now having government and private entities mandating vaccines to have a job. Pretty damned arbitrary, no? 

All because some folks have arbitrarily decided for the first time in viral history, no one is allowed to get sick or die from a virus. Yet it happens to millions of us (flu cases in 2019-2020 were nearly 40 million in the U.S. alone) every year. Somehow, COVID is different? The only way to battle COVID is a vaccine that raises serious concerns around the world and only works near
100 percent in the United States?  

My other ditty has to do with our kids going back to school. I don’t have the exact quote, but it was something akin to how I don’t care about children (of course) and more arbitrary, the immuno-compromised. And yes, this person is immuno-compromised. So naturally, that’s the only topic allowed in his argument. 

Once again, the only solutions allowed are vaccines for adults and kids down to 12 and mandatory masks for every child returning to school. Once again, the inference is I want people to die. I’m not even going to bother to say it again. Because I’m truly tired of people like them. 

Then again, if we got beyond his tone we could ask about the efficacy of vaccines while using relative numbers in Mesa County from the first day vaccines were in full effect (hint: we DON’T) or how well masks have worked. We could discuss the ever-changing takes of masks from they don’t work to they’re just a way to make people feel better to they must be mandatory again with every new variant. Then again, this is the same guy who screamed at me my 13-year-old needed to be a custodian as well as student last year. 

I guess it’s easier to arbitrarily say I want people to die — if not kill them myself. Just wait until these folks have their tone used on them. Maybe then they’ll see I want people to live. If only they’d asked. 

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com.