I have been considering freedom lately from my third-floor room in a Christchurch hotel.
The teenagers and I are on our sixth day of managed isolation and quarantine. All going well, we'll get sprung next week - back home to Pāpāmoa. All bets are off if one of us tests positive for Covid - a looming concern as we recently learned someone on our flight from Los Angeles had the virus.
We spent a month in America visiting a family member who is recovering from their own hellish 2021 - cancer treatment. They are doing fine, but the spectre of disease persists as we remember drugs and procedures that temporarily rendered our person a burned, thin, coughing version of their former self.
Our loved one has rebounded from the liminal space spanning life and death. Still, we felt strongly enough about wrapping our arms around them that we decided to spend a lot of time, money and worry on overseas travel.
To anyone in New Zealand angry about vaccination and mask mandates, scanning and other Covid precautions - check out the United States. You must be vaccinated to travel there if you're not a US citizen, resident or legal immigrant. But let's pretend you received an exemption to travel. Depending on which state you visit, you might really dig America's Covid response.
For reasons that still baffle me, the strictness of Covid restrictions depends largely on whether you live in a Democrat (blue) or Republican (red) state. Democrats tend towards mask and vaccination mandates. Republicans want everyone to decide those things for themselves. The kids and I got to see both systems in action while visiting Ohio (red) and California (blue).
First of all, we did not encounter any scanning into businesses. Covid infections in the US are rampant - more than 700,000 a day - and those are only the ones reported. We could not find home tests readily available for sale. Free testing sites often have long queues. If you despise scanning and testing, America is your place.
Second, Ohio, like most of the country, has no mask mandate. Only nine states (including California) require masks in indoor spaces. Some businesses ask you to mask if you're unvaccinated. We're vaccinated, but our tribe always masked.
We visited a townie bar one night for dinner in my dad's small town. It's known for chicken wings, but I'll always remember it as a crowded place where I got stuck between two unmasked, barrel-bellied men while trying to navigate a narrow strip between the bar and the exit.
We toured a house in Cleveland, where the 1983 movie A Christmas Story was shot. Crammed into the narrow, historic home were about 40 other people, most unmasked. Our tour guide delivered interesting factoids about the film with a mask hanging under her nose.
Likewise, a server at a chain restaurant in Ashtabula wore a mask around her chin. "It doesn't work that way!" I wanted to shout.
A bearded young man approached our table asking if we had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I told him to leave us alone, not because he was proselytising, but because he wasn't wearing a mask.
In America, you may be able to work as a nurse, teacher, police officer, barista - just about any profession - without being vaccinated - depending on your city, state and employer.
A greater percentage of Americans versus Kiwis enjoy tremendous freedoms to reject the jab.
About 72 per cent of Americans aged 12 and up are fully vaccinated, according to data from the New York Times (compared with 92 per cent of Kiwis aged 12 and up). The US Supreme Court this week blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers.
In America, you won't need to isolate in a hotel upon arrival from overseas. There's also no requirement to test negative or be fully vaccinated to travel domestically (except for Hawaii). You will need to wear a mask on board.
Freedom from pandemic restrictions in America has come at a great cost: more than 800,000 deaths and counting. That equates to 253 deaths per 100,000 people. By contrast, New Zealand has reported 52 Covid deaths so far, or one death per 100,000.
US Covid hospital admissions have surpassed last winter's peak, thanks to the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Many medical facilities in the States are overcrowded. National Guard members have been called to help with the deluge of (mostly unvaxxed) Covid patients.
My aunt, head of nursing at a major Midwestern hospital system, says the moral injury to staff is high: "I have doctors call every day pleading for beds that we don't have. We're deciding who lives and who dies. It's really hard on all of us."
In America, freedom looks like unmasked faces and choose-your-own-misadventures concerning vaccination. It also looks like death, suffering and more online school.
Despite the sacrifices we've made as Kiwis, I'd rather live with the freedoms we enjoy in Aotearoa, rather than the "free-dumbs" people endure in the States.