Nearly 30 years ago, a deadly virus began to take a grip on humanity. Nobody saw it coming, or heard it, or got a good whiff of it. But before anyone could sample it, bottle it, and send it off to the laboratory to be analyzed, synthesized, and evaluated, this malodorous venom found far too many victims. And its victims became so drenched in its captivating fumigations that they became dead meat before anyone could scream “Stop!”

Today, a growing number of our planet’s population have become immersed in its numbing effects. And nobody knows precisely who, what, when, were, how, or why? In its wake are politicians, commentors, legislators, evangelists, pseudo-intellectuals, cops and robbers, even Supreme Court justices—all victims to a sociological, pathological, scatology that history will record as “a deadly virus, that scoffed reason, trampled science, shunned logic, mocked justice, and spit on democracy” as if they were nothing but bad alternate choices. Like energized zombies the afflicted now march in unison to the tune of its dictatorial misfits—ready, willing and eager to listen to any lie, reject any truth, and kneel in servitude to any tyrant. For what? To embrace the dictatorial mandates of their demented leaders.

I do not expect to see the end of this malady. History, however, will record that a goodly portion of it was financed by billionaires; adhered to by their legislative puppets; by ignoramuses; and by others barely able to know that they have been “useful idiots” in somebody else’s plot.

But new signs are finally beginning to show themselves that argue against the survival of this deadly disease that seeks out weak minds to capture. A few judges have been steadfast in their trust of our Constitution, to our heritage, and to the good that we can do. They have joined the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, free-thinkers, many of our teachers, most of our enlightened politicians, virtually the entire scientific community, educators, men and women of goodwill, philosophers, and those who have fought in wars, and have held steadfast in their values and beliefs.

There appears to be a underlying dialogue between malevolent wealth seekers and harsh dictators, under the guise of “dialectical materialism,” a deliberate way of moving humanity away from freedom back to subjugation in small incremental steps. I will let historians and students of philosophy argue the merits or the demerits of those undercurrents. As for me, I personally find the pursuits of both groups in violation of all that I am or can be. Patrick Henry’s words are more to my liking: “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."