The recent mandatory face mask order by Mayor Carlos Gimenez in Miami-Dade County is an infringement upon our civil rights. This mask order is unconstitutional as it violates our First and Fourteenth Amendment privileges.

Our Founding Fathers chose personal freedom over the alleged security offered by the State. Benjamin Franklin said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson said, “Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.”

The more secure the State makes you, the less freedom you have. If someone locks you in a cage and surrounds you with armed guards, then you are absolutely secure but this security has come at the cost of your freedom. Forcing people to wear masks is a first step down a dangerous road which usurps the autonomy of the individual in the name of a security that is neither known and which is indeed absolutely arbitrary in nature.

The correct solution is to inform the people but leave the responsibility squarely on their own shoulders. That is, people should be informed as to the risks regarding COVID-19 (or any other disease) by the State, but it should be solely up to the individual man and woman to decide whether or not to wear face masks, apply hand sanitizer, engage in social distancing, etc.

We stand with our Founding Fathers and choose freedom! With my personal freedom intact, I will make myself as secure as I want to. This must reign true in the city of Miami, in the State of Florida, and in the entire United States of America.