Wearing a Mask in public

Here in Kentucky we are taking it slow; very few stores are open, but we did just allow restaurants to reopen at 33% capacity. I've decided I won't be going anywhere non-essential until we see whether the cases spike 14 days from this past Friday. There's a ton of news stories about people throwing away all the social distancing rules and going to parties, crowding into bars and theaters, and refusing to wear masks in public like it's a sign of patriotism.

There is a sickness in this country; it isn't the Coronavirus, it doesn't start with a cough or fever, and its only a worry for those of us who don't have it. It's called ignorance, and I'm not saying that to be mean or divisive. Ignorance is defined as a "lack of knowledge or information", and saying someone is ignorant isn't an insult unless you make it one. For some reason there are people who take pride in their ignorance, and even worse there are people who let their ignorance dictate their world views.

Ignorance has always been there, because the education system in this country isn't what it should be, and that is NOT a dig against teachers. We are still trying to make sure everyone can recite information instead of teaching people how to problem solve, and though there are changes being made very day it is still going to take a long time to erase ignorance from our society.

With so many websites offering news, it can be hard to look at an article and decide if it is real or if it is propaganda, and it didn't used to be that way (at least not to this extent). We used to trust our media, but then some of them started to bald faced lie. We used to read our newspapers, except for the obvious super market trash about Elvis and aliens. Now we go to Facebook and believe every story that comes across our feed, especially if it is sensational or conspiratorial.

News flash for those who believe "The Government", as a group, is keeping information about aliens, vaccines, and pedophile cabals bent on world domination a secret; people can't keep secrets, and the government is a whole lot of people. That's not to say that the government doesn't have secrets, but they are secrets that a whole lot of democrats and republicans agree are worth keeping for national security. Conspiracy theories are so popular because they are sensational, but if the gossip is that juicy you'd have a lot of people dishing.

How does this involve masks, you say? I had to go to Home Depot to get some items for a repair job at my house, and as I was walking through the store with my mask on I quickly realized I was one of the very few people wearing one. People were giving me dirty looks, laughing and pointing, and some of them were even visibly angry.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out why people don't want to wear a mask; it doesn't have anything to do with how effective they really are, or whether its giving up a personal freedom. It is entirely about how they look while wearing it, and thinking that anyone who wears them is dumb. Yes, you might look a little silly wearing a mask, but you definitely look silly with your overalls rising so high that your socks show and the 3 teeth you have left in your head are crooked.

It seems like there is a very specific type of person who doesn't want to wear a mask in public, and that is an ignorant person. Someone who doesn't have all of the information, but instead allows their social media to dictate their science and safety to them. Someone who would rather take the word of a walking spray tan than a physician who the spray tan listens to about his own health in private. This isn't rocket science; the mask is NOT 100% effective, but it is 95% effective if it's an N-95 mask. Even a T-shirt wrapped around your face is giving you SOME protection.

Stop acting like it's violating a person freedom of yours. Everyone is talking about the seat belts, and driver's licenses, and all the other "freedoms" we give up in the name of safety. I have one better for you; The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Most people take that to mean that they can do what they want in the pursuit of their own life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness but in reality the framers were talking about all of us. If you want to build a bomb that would cancel out my life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness then yours isn't going to be allowed. If medical experts are saying that not wearing a mask in public could cause infections to spike, and in turn cause more people to die, then your "freedom" not to wear a mask could be causing direct harm to others, and shouldn't be allowed.

A lot of people are calling others "sheep" for wearing masks; really, name calling like it's third grade again? Don't listen to those people, because they want you to not wear a mask to help justify their decision not to wear one. Just put on your mask when you go into a store, be grateful there are still stores we can go into, and when you get back out into the fresh air rip that bad boy off and breath free. If a store says they require it, then put it on and get over yourself. Stop being ignorant and causing a scene that draws more attention to your ignorance about the situation. Put on your damn mask and stop trying to get others to take theirs off.

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