The Mask
I stopped at a job on Friday.
The superintendent said, “Come to my office. I gotta’ talk to you.”
I was concerned. Perhaps someone on the site had contracted the virus. Maybe the health department had shown up. I was worried.
“Here,” he said. He handed me a big yellow envelope. There was nothing written on it and it was sealed. “Don’t tell anyone I gave that to you.”
“What is it?”
“Open it.”
I did, and removed a cloth Yankees mask.
“We got some masks donated and I put that one aside for you.”
I was pretty excited. Would have shaken his hand, but...ah...you know.
And I haven’t actually found the mask to be all that inconvenient. Of course, I wear a high-visibility coat or vest, a hard hat, work boots and eye protection every single day. The mask is just part of the uniform now, and it’s important, I believe to protect myself and others.
But suddenly it’s a hot button item.
“I’ll never, ever wear a mask,” one lady posted on social media. “I get it, I get it! I’m not going to look like an idiot.”
I actually laughed at that one.
Others have an absolute opinion on the effectiveness of the mask.
“It’s not going to keep the virus out anyway.”
That may actually be true, but what shocks me about the social protesting is this:
Who is everyone mad at?
Why all the rage?
I always wondered how it might go had there been an enemy that didn’t have an either Democrat or Republican name to it.
Somehow the virus has found a dividing line and the mask is center stage.
“Don’t tell me what to do with my body,” is a strange sign to see in the hands of the alt-right.
Somehow the message got lost along the way.
Guns on the steps of the capital in Michigan?
Some of the people in the protests were actually wearing masks.
I don’t get that?
You’re storming city hall to protest that things are closed down and because you have to wear a mask, and you’re wearing a mask?
Imagine how the scene might have played out had the people involved in that protest been black. I’m thinking that would have played out much differently, and the presidential tweet wouldn’t have called them “good people.”
That realization, right there, made me so sad.
The other sad thing is that there is a debate. In Oklahoma a mayor had to rescind his rule that masks be worn at all times in stores because people who worked and visited the store wearing masks were being bullied and threatened.
“I was in line at a Dollar General,” one woman wrote, “And a man without a mask was behind me. There are big X’s on the floor so no one gets too close, but he ignored it. He was less than a foot away. I politely asked him if he could give me some room. ‘You falling for this shit?’ He asked.”
The woman went on to say that she asked the man three times to please move back and that he finally did, but that he called her every name in the book.
Don’t you find that a little sad?
Ah well.
I’ll be out there in my Yankees mask.
I hope you’ll wear one.
If not.
I hope you stay healthy.
We are in this together...
...even if it appears that some people would rather fight about it.
The superintendent said, “Come to my office. I gotta’ talk to you.”
I was concerned. Perhaps someone on the site had contracted the virus. Maybe the health department had shown up. I was worried.
“Here,” he said. He handed me a big yellow envelope. There was nothing written on it and it was sealed. “Don’t tell anyone I gave that to you.”
“What is it?”
“Open it.”
I did, and removed a cloth Yankees mask.
“We got some masks donated and I put that one aside for you.”
I was pretty excited. Would have shaken his hand, but...ah...you know.
And I haven’t actually found the mask to be all that inconvenient. Of course, I wear a high-visibility coat or vest, a hard hat, work boots and eye protection every single day. The mask is just part of the uniform now, and it’s important, I believe to protect myself and others.
But suddenly it’s a hot button item.
“I’ll never, ever wear a mask,” one lady posted on social media. “I get it, I get it! I’m not going to look like an idiot.”
I actually laughed at that one.
Others have an absolute opinion on the effectiveness of the mask.
“It’s not going to keep the virus out anyway.”
That may actually be true, but what shocks me about the social protesting is this:
Who is everyone mad at?
Why all the rage?
I always wondered how it might go had there been an enemy that didn’t have an either Democrat or Republican name to it.
Somehow the virus has found a dividing line and the mask is center stage.
“Don’t tell me what to do with my body,” is a strange sign to see in the hands of the alt-right.
Somehow the message got lost along the way.
Guns on the steps of the capital in Michigan?
Some of the people in the protests were actually wearing masks.
I don’t get that?
You’re storming city hall to protest that things are closed down and because you have to wear a mask, and you’re wearing a mask?
Imagine how the scene might have played out had the people involved in that protest been black. I’m thinking that would have played out much differently, and the presidential tweet wouldn’t have called them “good people.”
That realization, right there, made me so sad.
The other sad thing is that there is a debate. In Oklahoma a mayor had to rescind his rule that masks be worn at all times in stores because people who worked and visited the store wearing masks were being bullied and threatened.
“I was in line at a Dollar General,” one woman wrote, “And a man without a mask was behind me. There are big X’s on the floor so no one gets too close, but he ignored it. He was less than a foot away. I politely asked him if he could give me some room. ‘You falling for this shit?’ He asked.”
The woman went on to say that she asked the man three times to please move back and that he finally did, but that he called her every name in the book.
Don’t you find that a little sad?
Ah well.
I’ll be out there in my Yankees mask.
I hope you’ll wear one.
If not.
I hope you stay healthy.
We are in this together...
...even if it appears that some people would rather fight about it.
Comments