U.S. Supreme Court made the decision today on allowing non-essential church gatherings during this Covid19 pandemic, ruling against New York State Governor Cuomo. This is the first case after Justice Amy Coney Barrett becomes the deciding factor in a 5:4 vote. It also correctly reflect what I believe is the overall sentiment of US citizens. In the US people value freedom more than lives. In other words, people rather have the freedom to decide what they want to do, despite the high chance of death or permanent health damage.

I do think that the freedom to let people gather infringed the right of other people who want to live. If this is not an infectious disease that can easily spread to other people and cause death, then people can exercise their freedom as much as they want. They can commit suicide as many times as they wish. But because it is an infectious disease, the action of exercising their freedom potentially takes away other people’s freedom to live. Just because other people did not actively choose to gather, it does not take away their rights to live amongst society. At a minimum, the people who choose not to gather have to stay at home for longer periods of time and are prevented from going out and interact socially. And it does hurt society as a whole from the mid to long term, even for the people that want to gather, at least before an effective vaccine is available. I’m going to ignore the people who don’t believe in vaccines. Thankfully, they are still a minority of the US population.

I still remember the first time I saw New Hampshire’s state motto, “live free or die”. This reminds me of some of the things I was taught when I was little. Rather than falling on the conservative side in the US, it was taught by people more on the liberal side in China. So I think things on the extreme ends are rather similar, no matter where they are.

I personally value lives more than beliefs, but I understand why people values believe more than lives. Believes keep the human race advancing to the next stage because people believe there is always a better tomorrow. This belief comes at a cost though, so keeping the balance between beliefs and lives is the key. I’m more of a person that learns the rule than bend the rule. It is an easier option. But I do envy the people that at least attempt to bend the rule. That is why I think diversity is important. Not just race, gender, age, etc, but also in mindset and beliefs.