Harry's Gang: If opposing sides dig in, no one can possibly win

Justin Krych of Esko once told me that political compromise is essential to good government. Everyone agrees we need to raise taxes: the Democrats want to raise them by 5 percent, but the Republicans think 2 percent is enough. Eventually, the two parties meet somewhere in the middle, and we move on to the next issue.

But you can't convince the other side you are right when the other side is arguing about something else entirely.

This fervor over wearing masks reminds me of similar fights we've seen around here, where the sides are arguing two completely different things. The one I remember most was about the indoor smoking ban. Support for the ban was pretty even with the opposition, and neither side would give in. It dawned on me that those in favor of a smoking ban were arguing about public health. Those opposed were arguing about civil liberties. There's no easy way to compromise in that situation.

We are seeing fights about wearing masks in public. Most experts in the health field are genuinely perplexed that anti- maskers would refuse to do something so easy and beneficial to their health. Of course, anti- maskers can't understand why anyone in their right mind would surrender the freedoms our country is known for, and fight so hard to protect. How do you compromise between rights and health? You can't.

"Health vs. Rights" is an argument no one will ever win. There's barely even any common ground. Eventually, a decision will be made and the winners will say, "See, we were right!" And the losers will say, "The harm done is irreparable."

I've noticed that it's usually the "health" crowd that prevails over the "rights" crowd. That means our rights are being slowly eroded. We can't smoke in bars. We can't burn leaded gas in our cars. We can't build our houses without fireproof materials. We can't flush our toilets into a creek. We can't play with lawn darts. All of those issues, at one time, were fiercely opposed by the "rights" crowd.

Even our freedom of the press has been eroded by the government, when our leader takes great steps to falsely criticize and attack the press. That's our government controlling us by delegitimizing those who are watching what it's doing - if the government can use its power to convince us to lose trust in news reporting, the government can then do pretty much whatever it wants to do.

Some would argue that the government already does whatever it wants. To some extent, that's true. We don't smoke in restaurants anymore, and it's not a big deal. My kids put on their seatbelts without a second thought. Our rights are being slowly eroded, without a doubt. It's important to hear the "rights" crowd when they caution us. I appreciate being reminded that being told what to do, such as wearing masks in public, is a slippery slope. We need to remember our civil liberties when we make these kinds of decisions. So, that's my compromise: thanks for the warnings, folks, that we need to protect our rights, and keep it up - we need you. You can thank me the next time you see me in public - I'll be the big guy in a red bandana face mask.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News and an attorney in Esko who hosts the talk show Harry's Gang on CAT-7. Email Pete.Radosevich@Pine KnotNews.com.