Keep Decisions Local

The fight between collectivists and individualists continues to be manifested by those calling for and opposing “one size fits all” approaches in fighting the coronavirus. We see it in calls for national and statewide mandates to wear masks and demands that schools reopen or remain closed this fall.

The idea that people in Washington, D.C. or Lincoln can dictate policy to people in a county hundreds of miles away flies in the face of individualism. This is especially true in matters such as an epidemic. The dispersed population of the Nebraska Panhandle coupled with distances between towns aff...