Does the right to go where you please without a face covering supersede the right of those around you to remain healthy when they are taking every precaution available to them?
Does the right of a person to do his job by enforcing an order from the governor of his state requiring every retail employee AND customer to wear a mask carry less weight than someone's self-declared right to go into a store without a mask and put everyone there at risk?
This should be enlightening.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/04/us/michigan-security-guard-mask-killing-trnd/index.html
That link is to a CNN story published Monday (today, as I write this) where a 43-year-old security guard at a Dollar General Store (and this in itself seems odd) was shot and killed for not allowing the man's wife to enter (against governor's orders) with nothing covering her face.
In my opinion the man who accompanied the husband into the store to confront the security guard and pulled the trigger committed first-degree murder, premeditated and cold-blooded. And it is a chilling display of disregard and disrespect for others.
People in my own neighborhood are no better. They are outside walking, bicycling, walking pets and mowing lawns -- all of which is perfectly fine. They are not wearing masks either. I have not seen a single mask here. Also very uncomfortable for me. So I have stayed inside for some time now.
Sunday afternoon I went to the landfill (my most frequent errand these days), gassed up the car and took a different road home, Pemberton Drive to be exact. As I rode toward Pemberton Park, I noticed cars coming and going. So I pulled in and found a few scattered parked cars, and a very few people strolling at one end of the parking lot. I parked and got out of my car, and walked down one of the trails. Never ran into another person there. And yes, I was wearing a mask. Uncomfortable? Yes. Annoying in general? Yes. But I'd rather be both healthy and free to move about for exercise outdoors in a public park,which requires the mask wearing. I had a lovely half-hour walk there, got some nice photos and really enjoyed myself. I will be going back there soon!
Lastly, here's why the mask thing is so important. Don't mean to be crude, but look at it this way (I did not make this up, by the way, I stole it because it's graphically clear how this works).
If you and another person happen to be having a conversation, and neither of you is wearing any clothes, and the other person pees, you will get wet. If you are wearing clothes and the other person is not, you will still get wet, but not as much. However, and this is the important part, if both of you are clothed and the other person pees, you stay dry. The virus is the pee. The "clothing" is a face covering.
Here's is what I heard a medical professional say while being interviewed on a radio show recently: Studies, she said, have shown that while a cloth mask will not protect the person wearing it, it will prevent 99 percent of the wearer's germs from escaping into the air during talking, breathing or whatever. So out of a desire to stop this virus and begin to live again in a more normal way, I wear a mask so no one around me will catch my germs. If someone else is not wearing a mask, however, I risk getting his germs. But if everyone is wearing a mask all the time outside of their own homes, it will drastically stop the spread of COVID-19 because the viruses will have trouble getting from one person to another.
Oversimplified, but you get the idea, I hope.
And you know what else? If everyone complied and wore a mask all the time, we could shop and be out in public, attend art exhibits and do a lot of things in a more normal way. Fewer restrictions, economy begins to recover. There are limitations, but it has to be better than what we are dealing with now.
Think about that. I don't want to get sick with COVID and possibly die alone and suffer horribly like that. Do you? I also don't want to get shot and killed because of a chance encounter like that.
Life isn't always fair; in fact, it rarely is. We need to adapt and protect each other so we can get through this.
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