Why I’d Rather Risk Dying from COVID-19 than Face Another Forced Lockdown

<Originally published in December 2020>

If you were to ask most people the question, “Would you rather die or ruin the lives of a million children?” I really do think most people give their lives for the children. It’s the children my heart goes out to this year. My children, yes, but I’m really thinking of the tens of millions of children who lost a year of education in 2020 and possibly, a chance at a decent future. 

I have lived in Colombia for the past six years. It has always caused me pain to see the way the majority of Colombia’s population lives in squalor. Except for a small middle class and a tiny upper class, most Colombians live in what an American would call a slum. Until 2020, most of the children in those slums did have access to some form of education, at least until they were old enough to work. Not anymore. 

Most of Colombia’s children, as well as the children in other developing countries, do not have access to reliable internet, much less the electronic devices required to use that internet. So while my kids complained about going to online school and I complained about losing work, millions of children simply lost an entire year of school. But is that all they lost?

Those children who lost a year of school also watched their parents lose jobs at restaurants, street fairs, and small businesses. They lived in slums with little to no plumbing and weren’t allowed to leave their miserable homes for six months. They struggled to survive. They started begging and working wherever possible because their parents no longer brought in a reliable income. They turned into little adults, and most of them won’t look back.

I feel sick when I wonder how many of those children may have turned to prostitution to get their needs met. Or started sniffing glue to stave off hunger pangs. (Yes, that’s a thing.) If their schools open up in January, will they even go back? I’m afraid many of them won’t.

But you and I won’t hear about that on the news. No one is reporting on how many children are starving as a result of lockdowns and businesses closing. No one is reporting on how many kids had no access to school this year. They’re more concerned with how many ICU beds are available in California. 

No one is reporting on how many children are starving as a result of lockdowns and businesses closing. No one is reporting on how many kids had no access to school this year. They’re more concerned with how many ICU beds are available in California. 

On a more personal note, this was the worst year ever for my family. My husband and I faced financial ruin. He was forced to close his business for over three months and even then, people in Colombia weren’t allowed to freely leave their homes to shop in malls for several more months after that. He’s operating at a loss and it’s only because of his savings that he was able to keep his business running at all. Those savings represented years of hard work and wise spending. They are completely depleted.

I also lost hundreds of billable hours this year while I tried to homeschool my children and prevent them from killing each other. I even brought them to my parents’ house in Kentucky, hoping that they could improve their degenerating mental health in the great outdoors. I’m grateful to my parents for giving us that chance, but we’ve been separated from their father for six months now. And I’ll never get those work hours back. 

2020 was supposed to be a good year. I finally had good clients again. We had enough money saved up to start making some big steps forward in our family life. Instead we lost tens of thousands of dollars and my husband’s business is only surviving because he’s too stubborn to close it. We have been financially devastated, but we‘ll come back from this eventually. I know that many parents and small business owners actually did lose everything this year, and my heart goes out to them even more.

None of us were given choices in all of this. Our government decided that the lives of a few mattered more than the lives of the many. The government is not here to decide who should live and who should die. They are here to provide resources, research, and information. Give the hospitals what they need to treat the patients, sure. Make sure everyone wears a mask, sure. But no government should have the right to shut down my husband’s legal business and tell him that feeding his children is less important than saving people who had already lived past the average human life expectancy. Yeah, I said it. 

The vast majority of Covid-19 deaths are people over 75 or those with comorbidities. Their lives are important, of course. They have the right to stay home and stay safe. But the rest of the world should have a right to work, make a living, and survive as well. The lives of a very few are not more important than the lives of the great many. And the ability to work is the ability to live and survive. When you take that away, you take away the chance at a good life. 

The life of an 87-year-old woman is not more important than the entire future of millions of children. Neither is mine. Nope. It’s not. Call me heartless all you want. Troll it up, trolls. But it simply IS NOT. Millions of people die every year from heart disease and obesity, but I don’t see anyone closing McDonalds. This is not what the government is here for, and they need to STOP THIS NOW. Stop ruining people’s lives. Stop making it impossible for us to work and support our families. 

Pass a mask mandate. I have zero problem with that. Give your hospitals what they need to treat patients with Covid. Get that vaccine moving. But don’t tell people they can’t work and provide for their families. Don’t tell children that their education is the last priority. Don’t leave them at home and make it impossible for their parents to leave home and go to work. 

I know a lot of people don’t agree with this. But a lot of people kept their full-time office jobs and worked from home, complaining about homeschooling their kids while they never lost a cent of their salary. If that’s you, then you don’t get to criticize my opinion. Talk to me after you’ve just watched $30,000 go right down the toilet through no fault of your own. Because the government said your income wasn’t important. 

While you’re at it, maybe stop reporting so often on how many elderly and sick people died of Covid. How about reporting on how many more children are starving on the streets now throughout the world? How about reporting on how many small businesses closed this year? On how crime, murder, and child prostitution is at a terrifying high? Maybe that’s what you need to be reporting on.

Colombia is starting to close down again for the holidays, as are many parts of Europe and the United States. Many businesses depend on their income at Christmastime to get them through the first months of the new year. I know my own opinion won’t change what’s happening in the world. But I do hope that more people see and understand what this is doing to small business owners and their families all over the world. Please, let the kids go back to school in January and, for the love of God, stop ruining our lives and our futures. 

If you were to ask me, “Would I rather risk dying of Covid-19 or irreparably damage millions of lives?” I’ll pick Covid, every time.