Ilana Rachel Daniel
Health advisor, health and safety researcher, activist, and writer.
I joined forces with my co-founders of the Rappeh party for the same reasons you have searched and arrived at this initiative: this movement is one that, finally, raises the bar. It leaves behind the arguments of right and left, pro and anti, even religious designations, and asks of us: what are the most basic common denominators we share?
Like many of you this past year I have witnessed the deliberate destruction of the values that we live by and the systems in place to uphold them in the name of "public health." I, like you, have sat up nights grappling with the inconsistencies in the explanations our government has offered for their policies. In the near five cumulative months we have sat in lockdown, I, like you, have seen a brightness in our children dim.
I have searched beyond the superficial sound bites we have been handed, for science and medicine with transparency and integrity, in order to make an educated risk-benefit analysis to guide crucial choices of health for my family.
After a full year, billions upon billions of dollars, and the most brilliant scientific minds at the task, I ask: how can deadly lockdowns and a risky, experimental, novel technology be our only options?
The cure has become far worse than the disease.
I maintain that the right to self determination and bodily autonomy are not privileges offered by government, but are inalienable rights inherent to every individual with whom we share the planet.
Informed consent is a basic component of a healthy and functioning society. The freedoms of speech, choice, and ability to earn an honest wage and raise a family accordingly are rights upon which the government may not intrude.
Our governments will not be returning us our freedoms. On the contrary, they take action to further eradicate them.
I am not a politician. I am part of this movement because this country is more than my home and our fellow citizens are more than neighbors.
This is our land and it is our refuge. The nations are watching now as they have always done. I wish to restore our ability to shine light to them.
This is our movement, this is our witness, this is our future.
It changes for the better the moment we together take the responsibility back.