Weekly Opinion Editorial
MASK OR NO MASK?
by
Steve Fair
The city councils in many Oklahoma cities
and towns, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa, have mandated citizens wear masks
in public settings to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. The action has been controversial, with some
taking to social media to condemn what they describe as ‘government overreach.’
The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) recommend
people wear a mask in public settings and when around people who don’t live in
their household, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult
to maintain. They contend the masks can
help prevent people with COVID-19 from spreading it. They write: Cloth face
coverings are recommended as a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory
droplets from traveling into the air and onto other people when the person
wearing the cloth face covering coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice.
This is called source control. Three observations:
First, mandating masks does affect individual liberty.
But so does requiring individuals to wear a seatbelt, making them take
their shoes off going through a TSA checkpoint, or having a speed limit on
highways. Americans have submitted to
those restrictions on their liberty with barely a whimper. The State of World Liberty Index was created
to score countries in three categories: individual freedom, economic freedom
and government size and taxation. The
2020 ranking does not have the United States in the top 10. Americans have been losing liberty at a
steady rate since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. A case can be made that the Patriot Act actually
punished Americans more than those who planned the attacks. Make no mistake, individual liberty is sacrificed
when government authorities mandate anything, including masks.
Second,
medical experts say masks help stop the spread of COVID-19. The vast majorities of medical people
encourage people to social distance and wear masks. There are skeptics who believe the COVID-19 pandemic
is overblown, political, and a conspiracy of the deep state. Clearly, some(on both sides of the aisle) are
taking political advantage of the situation, but the COVID-19 virus is real. If wearing a mask helps our neighbor, what’s
the harm in doing it? It just seems dying
on the hill of not wearing a mask while ignoring an out of control national
debt and a crumbling country is a bit ironic.
Third,
people who wear masks are not weak, meek, or lack faith. Those who don’t wear masks aren’t stronger,
have more faith or courage than their mask wearing brothers. Mask wearers are being cautious and it is
their God-given and constitutional right to wear the mask. They shouldn’t be heckled or put down by the
non-mask wearers. Conversely, those who
choose not to wear a mask shouldn’t be heckled or put down by the mask
wearers. That is the principle of
personal liberty.
The debate on mask wearing borders on the
insane. Name calling, insults and caricaturing
of those who disagree is often unkind and unchristian. Insulting elected officials and questioning
their political leanings is the order of the day. Wearing a mask or not wearing a mask may or
may not stop the spread of COVID-19- only God knows, but wearing or not wearing
a mask will not be the instrument that destroys America. Not recognizing others the right to disagree
impedes liberty more and is far more destructive.
No comments:
Post a Comment