I must confess I am a bit “mask hesitant”. The CDC has recommended that we once again wear masks in public places, something I was perfectly willing to do last time around, but…
It’s a matter of personal freedom! I have been vaccinated, and I have little to fear from the Delta variant, even if I catch it. I realize that if I do catch it, I can spread it to the unvaccinated, who might die as a result, since they have exercised their freedom of choice to refuse to be vaccinated. When I did wear a mask, I did it despite the impingement it represented on my personal freedom, because I figured if I wore a mask, thereby protecting others, they would in turn wear masks to protect me. After all, I’m all that matters, right? Isn’t that what personal freedom’s all about?
Some might say that I should be willing to re-mask in order to preserve the lives of the unvaccinated, but part of me asks: Why? So they can vote for people who will be destroying our democracy? So they can be around in greater numbers to vote to curtail all the other personal freedoms we enjoy, except for our god-given right not to be vaccinated or wear a mask? To tell the truth, I keep coming around to the argument that we would be better off without them, and if they want to rely on hydroxychloroquine rather than proven vaccines, who am I to interfere with their freedbecause they’re the ones picketing schools to make kids go maskless so they can more easily om of choice? Also, if I don’t wear a mask, I’m supporting their point of view, because they’re the ones disrupting school board meetings so they can spread the disease to the last remaining pocket of people who have not been vaccinated because they can’t be vaccinated. If they’re willing to have their kids (and ours too!) die for their freedom, who am I to deprive them of that right?
I think the nuns at Our Lady of Sorrows would probably have told me that I should not take a not-so-secret pleasure reading stories about anti-vaxxers who have had a change of heart as they struggle to take a ventilator assisted breath and that I should not take even more pleasure reading about the passing of anti-vaxxers who spread disinformation until their penultimate breath. We’ll, I’ll just wallow in that pleasure and count on getting my slate wiped clean the next time I go to confession, which based on past performance, will be never. In the meantime I’m with the Rude Pundit.
Afterword: In these troubled times, it is often hard to tell satire or parody from straight talk. I often read Onion headlines on my RSS feed and think they’re serious news until I see the source. So, just to be on the safe side, I don’t really intend to refuse mask requirements. On the other hand, I haven’t misstated my feelings about the anti-vaxxers.
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