Masks, Opening, Freedom

The mask is not primarily for you. It's for the people you come in contact with. It prevents you from directly breathing, coughing or spitting on them - not that you would intentionally do any of that, but your mask prevents that.

 

Yes, it also helps protect you, from touching your face, from getting sprayed by someone else - at least for your mouth and nose.

 

Yet there's a set of people who say masks are violating their rights, obscuring their freedom. But that's not the case. It's just the opposite - not wearing one could violate the right of others to safety.

 

And certainly, I'm not perfect. The other day a contractor doing some work knocked on my door (painting our townhouses). I had talked with him before, at a distance without wearing a mask. This time he wanted me to show him some spots on one of the townhomes and was asking me to "come now". I followed him outside without thinking, no mask with me.  We walked a block and I showed him the wood that needed to be replaced. Each time he moved toward me to see where I was pointing, I stepped away.

 

Later in the day when he came back to my house, I grabbed my mask (to give him access to paint in my garage) and I could see in his eyes he was questioning why I was wearing a mask. After all, he wasn't sick, coughing, sneezing or anything like that. That pressure is an issue.

 

The fundamental misunderstanding between people - that it's some kind of affront to wear a mask around them, that you are somehow judging them individually by wearing one is palpable. I assure you I am not. 

 

I'm protecting you and yes, protecting me. I wish you could afford me the same courtesy.

 

But the people railing against using masks are the same ones who are angry when I don't let them make their illegal left turn before traffic starts (a Pittsburgh courtesy, but one that completely opposes the law. They expect me to hold traffic to let them turn after the light turns green as opposed to letting them wait until opposing traffic has cleared. They give me the finger as I legally and safely start driving in my lane.

 

It's the same people that carry their pistols and rifles to public events to show their privilege.

 

It's the same people that say the Governor (pick any one) is a tyrant for not opening up a county that still has a high death rate or new infection rate, or that has been statistically determined to be a potential death zone. It's the business owner who opens up despite being in one of these areas.

• You endanger others merely by doing what you are doing. Stop putting yourself ahead of others. It's not your right. Your right stops exactly at the point it endangers others.

• You use freedom and economic urgency to argue this.

• Look, I get that not running your business means no cash flow. We need to be looking to the government to push taxes we've paid back to us in aid.

• We need to establish business continuity insurance as part of the taxes you pay - so that in the event business must pause like this, it doesn't break us or keep us from paying employees.

• For those that say this is not government's job, I say to you bullshit. This is exactly governments job. Business only takes care of business. Religion takes care of the devout (sometimes). Charity takes care of the non-devout (sometimes) - none of these can be relied on. Government is here to protect people - all people. That includes invading armies and includes issues like keeping people fed, housed and medically well. 

The hurry to open is driven by impatience and economic necessity, the latter being created by a system that effectively endangers the poor and the independently employed. It's artificial because if these people had a source of income to help them wait out 90 days and not ruin their lives, the wait would have little impact other than boredom. Need proof? People with savings, income and food are complaining of boredom. 

 

So instead of protesting that waiting and protecting others is violating your rights, protest a system that leaves you, your business and your neighbors without a safety net. Protest a system where the wealthy grabbing 3/4 of the stimulus money in addition to the huge tax breaks they got just before that. Protest an administration that wants to privatize social security and education rather than provide. Who wants private research rather than shared government research (after all, the Government cannot do anything that benefits business - except for huge advances in technology from the space program, the CDC, The Internet, Project Management, Food Production and Distribution - literally getting us closer than ever to solving world hunger, and on and on). Protest the downfall of publicly funding the success of Americans and America. 

 

Blaming politicians that are taking steps to keep people safe and are pushing for programs to help keep people fed and in their houses, is ignorant. Protest the system that makes your endangering everyone else a necessity.

 

Make sure you are registered to vote. And vote.