Are we supposed to listen to him because he runs some big global charity? One that has recently funded a curriculum that teaches minority children that if your teacher expects them to get the correct answer to a math problem, it’s racist. He and his wife also spend a lot of time and money ensuring that girls in third-world nations can have abortions and that children in the same places receive questionable vaccinations.

Or is it because he is the largest private farmland owner in the country? This is pretty odd, considering he recently said we should all get used to eating synthetic meat. And who knows what experiments he will do with the food supply. After all, he wants to blow a bunch of dust into the atmosphere to dim the sun. Not to mention that Windows Vista may have been the worst operating system ever developed, and that is supposed to be in Gates’s area of “expertise.” It wasn’t the only dud Microsoft put out either.

This rant may sound like I am poking fun at Gates, and maybe I am. But the deference the culture gives him solely because he has a lot of money is disturbing. Gates loves to pontificate and is now less optimistic than president Biden or Dr. Anthony Fauci about when the world may return to normal. In an interview with a Polish newspaper, he asserted that we aren’t even halfway there:

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“This is an incredible tragedy,” the Microsoft co-founder said on the pandemic, adding that the only good news was the access to vaccines.

“By the end of 2022 we should be basically completely back to normal,” Gates said.

Reuters’ only support for why we should even care what he says is the $1.75 billion he donated to the COVID-19 response. I think we should all begin to have a greater appreciation for anonymous donors who get their kicks from the giving part instead of the global soothsayer part.

Gates should come to visit North Georgia. I will take him for an excellent local brew at Reformation Brewery. This stop is probably a good first step because it is a building with large garage doors that open to an expansive outdoor patio with excellent airflow. Here you will find friends and neighbors sitting together enjoying a beverage and maybe playing cornhole, also known as bags if you are from the Midwest. No one is wearing a mask, and no one has to show a vaccination passport.

From there, we can stop at the local grocery store to pick up snacks for later on the porch. About one-third of the shoppers may be wearing a mask, and no one has a tantrum if you aren’t. Then we can go to the local sports bar, sit at a non-socially-distanced bar, have another beer and a delicious burger. Medium-rare, of course, so he knows it is real beef. If that is too much for Gates, they do have a veggie burger for the socially conscious.

Then Gates and I can sit down together at the computer and look at the current COVID-19 experience in the state. As of March 13, 2021, the last day confirmed statistics were posted, the seven-day rolling average for positive tests is lower than it has been since June 16, 2020. The same metric for deaths with COVID-19 is 20, the lowest it has been since March 29, 2020. Both trendlines are on a steep downward curve. Georgia is 18th in deaths with COVID-19 per 100,000 and opened up first. Tho only states open longer are ones like South Dakota that never closed. Schools opened for in-person instruction in the fall, and my county hosted the first high school football game in the nation.

Georgians travel, gather, and choose whether or not to get a jab in the arm or cover their face and have for nine months. The most dangerous citizens in the country right now are the ones who know it is possible to live freely and normally with COVID-19. We are also the ones who will be throwing huge Fourth of July parties replete with potlucks and large, colorful fireworks—and posting pictures to social media. We still live in America.