In the 1950s, a liberal commentator who had a number of aborted runs for public office wrote some of the most important words in modern American political discourse. Words that should have an impact as we evaluate the totalitarian approach the Western world has undergone in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dean Alfange, a progressive and labor activist, wrote the following 163 words as first published in Reader’s Digest in 1952: “I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon. I seek to develop whatever talents God gave me—not security. I do not
