Stand firm: Nurse's stand is nothing but arrogant stupidity, not honor

Bring it on, Kaci Hickox. Sue your little heart out. This might be hard for you to get, but this is not about you.

If the governor of Maine -- and every other governor in this country -- does anything but stand firm on the decision to quarantine health workers when they return from West Africa, they should all be booted out of office for cowardice.

And the Maine nurse who is claiming she is fighting a civil rights battle ought to be ashamed to put herself in the same category with people who were battling real injustice -- not to get to go out to eat or to ride around the neighborhood for three weeks.

This is not about one nurse, one doctor or even one humanitarian aid worker. It is about the possibility that someone -- innocently or not -- could bring a deadly virus into a community.

Three weeks is not a lifetime. It is not even a real inconvenience. It is a sacrifice that you are asked to make when the issue is bigger than just your little world.

And the temper tantrum Miss Hickox is throwing is not only unflattering, it is disrespectful to her community and her country.

We do not know everything about this disease. And Americans are concerned about it.

Asking people to stay in their homes until the all-clear has been sounded is the right thing to do until we have a reliable cure, a readily available vaccine and more understanding of what we are dealing with.

Until then, we should make sure these people are compensated and keep them home -- no matter how much camera time they commandeer.

Published in Editorials on October 30, 2014 10:48 AM