Our Take: Huizenga favors small, radical minority who put us all at risk

Does Rep. Bill Huizenga really represent the majority of his constituents?

It is Nov. 20. When I sat down to read The Holland Sentinel today, I was dismayed to

find a lead story on the front page that again shows that our congressional representative is more concerned with the demands of a small vocal minority than he is with protecting the health of the vast majority of his constituents.

Rep. Bill Huizenga has become a sponsor of a House Bill demanding that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration rescind its order that all businesses employing more than 100 people require that all their employees be either vaccinated or be tested weekly for COVID-19 and wear masks while indoors.

How big is this minority who may or may not be refusing to be vaccinated? The Sentinel also reported the same day that 56.4% of the total population of Ottawa County is fully vaccinated (at least two shots, or one shot of the Johson&Johnson vaccine). Of the 43.7% unvaccinated about 20-25% are children under the age of 11 who are just beginning to receive their vaccinations this past week. That leaves, at most, 23.7% of the county’s adult (and children under 4) population unvaccinated.

More: Huizenga signs onto effort to invoke congressional review over OSHA COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Some of these unvaccinated are genuinely afraid to be vaccinated due to serious health

conditions. Some of these unvaccinated are too busy or cannot afford to risk being forced to take a day off to recover from the side effects of the vaccine that occur in a few cases. If we assume that these folks represent 10% of the unvaccinated pool, that leaves us with 13.7% who absolutely refuse to be vaccinated. Of these, the extremists who show up at school boards and other meetings demanding their “freedom from vaccination and wearing face masks” seem to be 6.8% of the population!

Americans have a tradition of protecting the rights of the minority. But protecting the right of 6.8% of the population to dictate to the other 95.2% — thus allowing this group the freedom to expose us to the current Delta variant and to thus encourage the virus to further mutate into even more virulent variants is totally unreasonable.

This vocal minority seems to base their refusal to be vaccinated, be tested, or to wear facemasks on rumors and conspiracy theories they have seen on the “social media” or extreme right-wing news sources. They prefer these sources of information to the findings our our medical and scientific experts that has been reported in reputable news media such as The Holland Sentinel.

Americans have always held that the minority has a right to make decisions that are in total disagreement with the demands of the majority. However, this minority must willingly accept the consequences of their decisions. The majority has the right to demand that they be tested once a week at least, wear face masks when outside of their homes, remain strictly quarantined for 14 days following when they or a member of their household tests positive for the virus.

Exercising personal freedom means being willing to live by the responsibilities that act brings along with it.

Apparently our Congressman is more interested in pleasing this radical small group and securing their votes for re-election than he is in protecting the vast majority of his constituents from this disease and its long-term effects.

Maybe most of the 92.2% of us who make up the vast majority of the voters he is supposed to be representing will remember his strong support of the 6.8% who are acting like 2-year-olds and are demanding their way or no way.

In less than a year, there will be an election again and we can show Bill how we feel about his support of people who demand that they be allowed to put our health and the health of our children at risk.

— Ken and Linda Kolk are residents of Zeeland.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Our Take: Huizenga favors small, radical minority who put us all at risk