Letter: Mask argument not unlike stubborn child’s
To the Editor-
After reading Ruth Pfiffner’s letter on your opinion page (Local business will suffer under mask mandate, July 13) and listening to the members of the community who appeared, in person, to lobby against a proposed county-wide mask mandate, I realized why all of the arguments sounded familiar.
You see, I have two teenagers. And every time I assign them a small but onerous task, I always seem to end up in a debate.
As with my teens, I hear a lot of me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, MY rights, MY freedoms, MY opinions. You know what we don’t hear a lot of? Us. We. OUR RESPONSIBILITIES.
Ms. Pfiffner was quick to line up a bunch of what-ifs and what-do-you-dos, explaining how pointless it is to wear a mask and how crippling the small gesture would become to our local economy. My kids wonder why they have to wash dishes that are only going to be dirtied again, or mow grass that will simply grow back.
Why, oh, why, must they be put upon to do a small, simple thing that will make life in our house and our community, safer, cleaner, and healthier?
Sometimes, the answer is simply “because I said so.”
Only this “I said so” is coming from our top medical experts in the country. The United States’ leading expert on infectious diseases. The Surgeon General of the United States, The Centers for Disease Control, leading hospitals, and medical schools.
All of these adults are saying THE EXACT SAME THING. Wear a mask. Because we said so.
COVID-19’s most infectious vehicle is the droplets that we exhale with every breath. That means whenever we get close enough to another person to breathe on them, we have the potential for spreading a virus that we may not even know we are carrying. One that has an unpredictable effect–but has the possibility (however remote) to KILL them.
Think of it like getting behind the wheel if you’ve had too much to drink. Sure, you might make it home safe. You might even wreck and kill someone but walk away from an accident unscathed. Is it too much to ask to just not do it?
Like teenagers, anti-maskers are harping about rights, but few mention responsibility. Without responsibility, we have no rights. We just have a bunch of whinging adolescents. And frankly, I’m full up at home.
Just put on your adult pants, and your mask and quit crying about it. The faster we do it, the faster we get through this. Just like mowing the lawn.
Lisa Pett
Stevens Point
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