I Don't Understand

I just don't understand.

I cannot comprehend why people are so opposed to wearing a face mask or other face covering (bandana, buff, etc.) when in a store. Please give me a logical explanation. The mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, reversed his decision mandating that everybody wear a mask when in public after just a few hours because store employees were being threatened both verbally and physically when they informed shoppers of the rule. Really? Why not have store security or available local police enforce the order? Sadly, a store security officer was murdered today when he refused to let someone into the store where he worked without a mask. Murder? A man was murdered because someone refused to put on a mask. There is no constitutional right to shop at a given store, so don't try to claim that the government is taking away your rights.

The wearing of masks is the best available way, in conjunction with social distancing, to slow the spread of the coronavirus. So why is there so much opposition to these simple steps to help protect public health? I don't like wearing a mask (it steams up my eyeglasses), but on the rare occasions I enter a store, I certainly wear one. And yes, the government does have the authority to order the wearing of masks during a public health emergency. The same is true of orders for social distancing and the closing of non-essential businesses. And despite claims to the contrary, gun shops, craft stores and nail salons are not essential.

The stay-at-home orders, social distancing, mask orders and the closure of non-essential businesses all are legal, and legitimate, actions during a public health emergency. You terrorists calling yourselves protesters march around with your Confederate signs and your placards declaring "My body. My choice." So does that mean that you now support a woman's right to choose? No? So the right to control one's body belongs only to the ultra right wing protesters?

Enough whining about how the government is violating your constitutional rights. Have you even read the Constitution? Your rights to do what? To infect countless others with whom you may come in contact? Your right to threaten store employees who tell you that you must wear a mask while in the store? Your right to intimidate legislators by storming the statehouse while armed with assault rifles? Your right to contract a disease that so far has killed nearly 69,000 Americans and infected nearly 1.2 million people? Your right to threaten the lives of healthcare workers who risk their health daily as they care for people with Covid-19? Your rights to be jackasses? You are not being oppressed. Your rights have not been taken away.

Your claims of individual rights do not outweigh the rights of others to remain safe. Your right not to be forced to wear a mask does not outweigh my right not to be infected by you. Your right to crowd the beaches and parks does not give you the right to possibly spread a deadly, and costly, disease. And along with rights come responsibilities. You want all the rights but none of the responsibilities that come with being part of a community, a civilized society. You don't get one without the other. But you don't care about your responsibilities, do you? All you can do is to feel oppressed and to regurgitate the lies fed to you by the alt-right groups that fund these so-called protests.

Author and pastor John Pavlovitz describes these home-grown terrorists as "miserable people." I don't know whether they are miserable or not, but I do know that they are selfish, self-centered, hate-filled people who care only about themselves. Maybe these people lead miserable lives. Maybe they have not shared in the opportunities this country offers. But that is not a reason to threaten others. And not surprisingly, all of these home-grown terrorists are white. How do you think the police would respond if a group of screaming, assault-rifle-brandishing black people or Muslims acted the way these good ol' boys do?

These people are not being oppressed. Their rights are not being taken away. Walking around with their Confederate flags and assault weapons doesn't make them patriots, and it doesn't restore whatever "rights" they think the government is taking from them. Maybe they don't care if they get sick. But shouldn't they care about making others sick? What about their parents or grandparents? What about their diabetic sister or their friend with asthma?

To quote New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, "It's not about your life. You don't have the right to risk someone else's life. And you don't have the right, frankly, to take a health care staff and people who are literally putting their lives on the line, and be cavalier or reckless with them."

America used to be a country of people who helped one another, who pulled together for the common good. In some cases, that remains true today. There are people making masks, donating money and food, looking out for each other. But in far too many cases, it's all about you, what you want, what you demand. What happened to contributing to the greater good? What happened to caring for one's neighbors? What happened to doing what is best for the country at large and not about what you want? What happened to making sacrifices for the good of the nation? And let's face it: the sacrifices we are being asked to make -- social distancing, wearing a mask, staying home -- aren't much in light of the pandemic.

My father and both uncles fought in World War II to protect America from fascists. My father took part in D-Day. His ship was sunk, and he spent several hours in the cold waters of the North Atlantic before he was rescued. Americans at home made their own sacrifices. Women took over working in factories producing armaments while the men were at war. Housewives made do with rationed sugar, butter, jams, jellies, firewood, meat and footwear. Now 21st century Americans are protesting because they can't go bowling or get a haircut. They are supposed to wear masks when in public. Oh the horror! The injustice!

In a word, get over yourselves. Start acting like human beings and not like a bunch of spoiled brats having temper tantrums.