Don’t plot harm against your neighbor, for those who live nearby trust you. — Proverbs 3:29
Well, it looks like the cheery greeting, “Hi, neighbor,” is fast becoming a solemn echo of the past as residents, warped by self-induced fear (2 Timothy 1:7), are being encouraged by their local and state governments to report each other to authorities. They can post photos online of people violating lockdown orders and use social media to tell on others who skirt social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic. It’s all being done through “Snitch Lines” and all you have to do in most cases is call 3-1-1, then look out your blinds to watch the enforcement agents come sweeping in on your neighbor to issue a citation or better yet, arrest the culprits! That ought to teach them a thing or two!
In Oklahoma City, 442 people aired their complaints the first week of their “Snitch Line,” about people not wearing masks, playing pickup basketball games, crowding near food trucks and a myriad of other pandemic infractions. The line now averages 42 calls a day.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti recently said, “You know the old expression about snitches, well in this case snitches get rewards—and we want to thank you for turning folks in and making sure we are all safe.”
Since March, the Massachusetts special 2-1-1 “snitch line,” as some call it, has taken more than 200,000 complaints about people they say who risk transmitting COVID-19 by not following rules to contain the spread of the disease.
In my naivete (just kidding), I thought well, that’s Oklahoma City, Los Angeles, and Massachusetts but surely not New Mexico, the land of “Red or Green?” (chili that is). So I decided to put my greatest fear to the test. Here’s what came up on the NewMexico.gov web page:
“If you wish to report non-compliance within a business, a violation of the mass gatherings ban, or other violations of the public order, you may report them to the Covid link or contact the State Police, local police or sheriff’s department on their non-emergency phone lines.” In Albuquerque, you just call 3-1-1.
We love our neighbors and know most of them up and down our street by name. We often gather in our driveways to exchange stories, meet their grandkids and later say evening prayers at home for each of them. God forbid that we would ever do anything different that would bring any of our neighbors harm—and we believe the feeling is mutual!
Most totalitarian regimes start with creating individual fear and put in place Draconian restrictions among its citizens and then reward them for reporting violations on each other. Is that where we’re heading in America? Or, are we already there? — Maranatha!
Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one
another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the
requirements of God’s law. — Romans 13:9
To help us walk closer with God and to know Him better
