The Canadian medical associations, media, and government all seized on her simple posting on social media to make an example of her. They hounded her, smeared her, investigated her, and attempted to destroy her career and even life. She attempted a pushback and then they used every mechanism to bankrupt her and drive her to the brink of insanity.
What’s shocking is what a sweet, quiet, and scrupulous woman of faith she truly is. The message seemed to be: we can do this to anyone, so certainly we can do this to you!
This example is a true inspiration.
Many of us have been down in the mouth about the state of the world and wondering what we can do about it. We want everything to be better but we’ve also realized that this is not possible. The pandemic planners and all their allies have caused so much destruction that there cannot be justice.
We are fortunate at this point even to retain the freedom to complain about what has happened. They even want to take that away. The baying hounds of corporate media are calling for more and more censorship. It’s all in the name of crushing the competition, which is us.
In this case we have our answer: help those who we can help when the opportunity presents itself, one life at a time. That is how we improve the world. It is not within our power to take away the calamity or end human suffering. But we can touch lives, save lives, rescue lives, and improve lives. In that way, we land a blow against tyranny and for human dignity.
Now we need to dig a bit deeper. Please indulge me a bit of personal reflection. Since I can remember in my own intellectual life, from perhaps high school, I’ve been consumed with the calamity that befell Vienna, Austria, from the heyday in the interwar period through the Second World War. In those years, we saw the rise and fall of one of the highwater marks of civilization—ideas, art, economics, law, science, psychology, architecture, and music—to ghastly barbarism, in only a few short years.
Vienna was once the place to be: safe, vibrant, tolerant, expansive, creative, and glorious in every way. So many of the century’s greatest achievements came out of the Viennese milieu, which in many ways was a follow-up to centuries of development in every field. There was every reason to believe it pointed to a beautiful future for humanity.
But already by 1934, it became a dangerous place to be for political dissidents and Jews in particular. The Nazi movement was making huge inroads with aggressive claims on Austria itself, and there was ever less reason to believe that the popular resistance to German imperialism would protect the intellectuals.
Then the purges began. The youth marched. The Nazi banners appeared. The songs changed. The church services were adapted to Nazi sloganeering. The Jews in particular were targeted. Many began to plot their escape, with full knowledge of what was coming. The destruction of the intellectual culture came quickly, from 1933 through 1938. The Anschluss, the annexation of Austria, took place March 12, 1938. That was the end.
Where did the Jews and others go? Anywhere they could, among which to neutral Switzerland, which housed many in academic institutions where they could live and write for the duration of the war. Because of this sanctuary, we saved many lives and many great ideas. But if the institutions had not been there, along with the money to support them, the calamity might have been much worse.
And it’s not only about the intellectuals. Thousands of Germans and Austrians, along with so many other good souls during the war, took great risks upon themselves to hide political dissidents in basements, attics, workplaces, or anywhere they could. They forged papers, worked in secret for safe passage out, and defied the overlords in whatever way was possible.
Being discovered in this activity meant certain death, so why did people do it? Because they wanted to do the right thing. A life lived in cowardice is not a worthy one.
There was no stopping the war machine, nor the killing and slaughter. But some people stepped up to make possible some good. That approach has at least three great merits: it actually does save lives, it feeds one’s soul to do something good for others, and it provides an example of hope and virtue to the world for the future. Think of all that inspires us today from that period: it is not cowardice much less malice but goodness and hope.
This does not seem like wartime now but actually it is. It is a war on humanity and its essential rights to freedom in all the ways it manifests itself. After watching everything that has unfolded over these few years, I have no doubt about this. This struggle is existential. They, whoever they are, have really targeted everything that makes life meaningful and grand. We simply cannot allow them to win.
In any case, the particulars of this whole ordeal have given me hope. In one week, 2,000 people stepped up to make a massive difference in this one woman’s life. Then Elon became the angel of mercy to fight for her. He didn’t have to do this. He gains nothing from it other than satisfaction that he is using his wealth for doing good.
Yes, we are a tiny minority. You are part of that. But here we are. We must all fight for what we know to be true. We must stand up for what is right.
In the end, it is not really about tribes and ideology. It is about defending the dignity of each person insofar as we are able. We cannot save the world but we can make a difference. And maybe, just maybe, that is the way we save the world. God needs to see that we care enough to give to others when we are able.
