Dozens of Texans showed up to the State Capitol Sunday morning to protest COVID-19 related stay-at-home orders, urging Governor Abbot to ease restrictions related to the pandemic. Anti-quarantine protests have been emerging all over the country, and honestly, this is getting absurd. 

All of Europe, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and basically almost every other developed country in the world have been implementing far more restrictive isolation policies, and have been met with little to no pushback from their citizens. And guess what? It’s working. 

The United States has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, and also the most amount of protests and violations of stay-at-home orders.

One would think that it would be easy to see a clear connection between these two facts, but apparently to the hundreds of anti-quarantine protestors who have been endangering not only their own lives, but the lives of essential workers and those who are at a high risk, COVID-19 policies are not much needed safety measures, no, but an infringement on American’s freedoms. 

That’s what these protestors say that they are standing up for: freedom. The freedom to go outside, to do what they please, shop at the stores they want to shop at, attend large social gatherings, and so on and so forth. What they fail to understand, is that if we don’t give up those luxuries for the time being, this quarantine might not end for months. 

I understand that these protests are protected by the First Amendment, and that as Americans we have the right to protest laws that we feel are unjust, however we are not living in a normal time right now. For the time being, we are each going to have to make hard decisions that we’ve never had to face before, and hopefully will never have to again.

I know people want to see their friends, or family, or are worried about their jobs. I know small businesses want to get back to work. But we need to understand that leaving our homes to do all of those things is dangerous, and putting ourselves, loved ones, and the country in harm’s way. 

The fastest way to get our country reopened is to follow these stay-at-home orders and continue social distancing. Even if these protests are lawful, are they worth the potential consequence of higher infection and death rates? Would you rather go through a temporary stay-at-home order, or protest and further the amount of time we must stay home? As Americans we have the privilege of making that choice, but we also have the responsibility to choose the right option. 

The most patriotic thing one can do right now is stay home to ensure that our essential workers are protected when they leave their homes to go save lives and keep this country running, whether they are nurses going to treat patients, or grocery store workers keeping our country fed. 

To ignore these policies and to indulge in these increasingly harmful protests is selfish to no end. Yes, our economy is suffering, and yes, we need to work on reopening the country. However, we are far from ready to do so, and violating stay at home orders are just going to push back plans to reopen the country, and cause more harm to the economy. Thousands of American lives are at stake, and keeping our citizens safe should take precedence over anything else.