Happy Masked Independence Day

Today is the anniversary of our founding fathers putting their lives on the line to declare the independence of their colony from England.  this day, above all others, we should reflect on where we are as a country compared to what they envisioned for us.
I am not a historian, and I am not even particularly well read in American history.  The closest I come is having taken an American History class from the great Gordon Wood, a renowned American historian, when I was in college.  That said, it seems absurd to assert that they would have prioritized personal freedom over the greater good of the country when it comes to an infectious disease.  They lived at a time where it was uncommon to not loose children to illness, and everyone knew someone who had dies of an infectious agent.  Probably not having to leave the confines of their family, and maybe not the walls of their home to have experienced such loss up close and personal.  So the current pandemic and the controversy over trying to save everyone from infection not being an agreed upon goal is infuriating.  People have and will die because of it, and those who refuse to follow the simplest of public health guidelines are culpable.