Photo courtesy of Tampa Bay Times |
Exhibit #1:
A young Latina in Florida is addressing the local council regarding the mandate to wear a mask
when leaving the house. She berates the
council members. She says they will be
arrested soon for following the Devil’s law.
She accuses them of being insane.
They will not escape the wrath of God.
It is all a deep state conspiracy, somehow related to the rolling out of
5G cell phone networks. She says social
distancing of six feet between two people at all times is military protocol,
and she is having none of it.
Exhibit #2:
A middle-aged White woman is screaming obscenities and flailing around inside a Trader Joe’s Market
in North Hollywood, a suburb of Los Angeles.
The manager and several employees are trying to calm her down, but her
rant continues. She turns to leave the
market but stops when she sees she is being filmed with a cell phone camera by
another customer. She says it is she who
has a breathing problem and therefore cannot wear the mask. She claims she has permission to shop without
a mask. She threatens legal action. Then, she turns and storms out.
Exhibit #3:
A second, somewhat younger White woman has a basket full of grocery items. She begins throwing each item from her cart around
the store. No employees approach
her. Her tantrum continues until her
cart is empty and her items litter the floor in every direction. She turns and storms out, screaming and
threating anyone she sees.
Many of these
encounters, especially over wearing masks, come down to the person saying that
wearing a mask violates personal freedom.
It does not. Wearing a mask
offers some protection from the spread of COVID-19.
Social media posts for
several restaurants in Los Angeles ask that patrons to these newly reopened
establishments refrain from berating and insulting, and in one case,
assaulting, the employees for following safety protocols put in place by Los
Angeles County, the governor and the mayor.
All of these encounters occur while the employees are trying to serve
the customers. The employees must wear
full masks and plexi-glass shields to prevent customers and themselves from infection,
yet the customers respond with verbal and physical abuse.
All of these people,
screaming and flailing around like toddlers, claim their rights are being
violated. Yes, being forced to wear a
mask is not comfortable but it slows the spread of the disease. Where are these “my rights, my body” people
when we talk about abortion, or the freedom to express ourselves as LGBTQ
citizens? What about the freedom to be
Black and walk home from the grocery store without facing physical violence and
death at the hands of law enforcement who have sworn to protect us? If we are asking for personal freedom, it
must be for all of us. Poverty, racial
hatred, lack of opportunity for education—those are causes worth fighting for
that affect every American. Screaming
and stomping one’s feet over wearing a mask to prevent transmission of a deadly
virus—get over it.
No one is exempt from
COVID-19 infection. Our careless, gratuitous,
gluttonous, sickening need for instant gratification only raises our chance of
infection. There is no cure, no vaccine,
no pharmaceutical that prevents COVID-19 or mitigates its virulent and deadly
rampage. Not real, you say? Hoax, you say? There are 126,000 plus Americans who would
disagree if they could speak.
Unfortunately, they are dead of COVID-19 and can only testify with their
absence.
Freedom demands
responsibility. Being part of humanity
demands we see ourselves as connected, inextricably, with each other. Democracy, as the ancient Greeks who invented
it remind us, is a team sport. And as
the cliché goes, there is no “I” in team.
In short, WEAR THE
DAMN MASK!!!
Those ubiquitous
signs: “We are in this together.” “We’ll get through this together.” We have no choice but to get through this
together. There is no personal freedom
without the responsibility to give others the same freedoms. We must rely on each other AND protect one
another.
It is our humanity
that we have lost in all of this.
Violence, rights, self-determination, political theater,
self-aggrandizement, narcissism, lies, lies, lies—it is all wrapped up in this
now. We must sort it out and return to
decency and ethical human behavior.
Take responsibility
for yourself and others: put on the
mask. It really is that simple.