Don’t like to wear a mask? Do you want your kids to go back to school in the fall? My teacher friends and I are wondering if we can chance working with students again. Based on the stunning number of people who go to the store with no mask, I’m having a hard time imagining that this community is willing to do the minimum it will take to make school work safely.
When you don’t wear a mask in an indoor public place, you are saying that you don’t care about other people. Your mask-less face doesn’t make you look tough or “free,” it makes you look dangerously selfish and dreadfully ill-informed. You do lots of things that you’d rather not, like stopping at a red light, or picking up after your dog, for the safety of others. There is consensus among health experts about masks – they work really, really well. Every day on the front page of newspapers, and on every news channel, you are bombarded with doctors and nurses begging you to wear a mask – so wear a mask.
I keep hearing people say “I’m young, I’m healthy, I don’t think it will be that bad, I trust my immune system.” Are you magical? Either you believe that you magically can’t get sick, or that you magically won’t get sick enough to die. Good for you! Does your faith in your magical immune system make you entitled to spread it to other people? If you think COVID-19 isn’t deadly serious, you haven’t been paying attention.
Do you want the Anchorage economy to recover? Then ask stores to require masks. I’m tired of dodging and circling to avoid mask-less people. Costco has earned my lifetime loyalty by taking precautions to protect me, so I’m going to stop shopping at Carrs and Fred Meyer. My money and my loyalty will go to any store or business that has a sign saying “Masks Required.” Those are the owners who care about their customers, employees, and our medical community.
I hope we won’t be kicking ourselves in August, sorry that there isn’t any school, the economy is shot, and we’re all back in lockdown. Tie a cloth around your face! I’ll be smiling at you beneath my mask – glad to share a city with you.
Barbara Wohlforth
Anchorage
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