On Wearing a Mask

Pandemically Speaking

His and hers basket of masks.  

The pandemic has had a direct impact on everyone for about four and a half months now. The world has known about this event for three months even before that. We watched people around the world wearing masks but many people in America thought "it can happen here".

It is amazing how the simple health precaution of wearing a mask has become so political and actually a symbol of the mismanagement of the pandemic by the administration. It has also caused the deaths of thousands of Americans. The president has downplayed the virus and in particularly the wearing of masks. He has blood on his hands.

My wife Becky was an early advocate of wearing a mask in public. She started wearing one in stores almost immediately and at a time when people looked at her funny and disbelieving that she had a mask on but she was right. She was protecting me and herself. 

Buying masks online has been a challenge and she made purchases from a variety of sources with different results. Overall though we now have a nice selection of masks. She wears them every time she goes to her studio but in the studio itself. She been wearing a mask in stores long before they were mandated. We have masks with us when we go for walks in the neighborhood and put them on if we encounter people on the street.

Nobody likes to wear a mask but it is for the common good. This pandemic has brought out many awful things about America and one of those unfortunate traits has been selfishness. Americans like to think it is the rugged individualism that conservatism is built on but the reality is now apparent that a large number of people in this country are just plain selfish, uncaring and inconsiderate of other people including their own families.