Since you're minding yours, I'll mind mine

E-gads!

What an outcry from the people who refuse to wear masks. I hear ya, the choice is yours…but not really.

Last week, Montana Governor Steve Bullock issued a mask mandate for certain counties in the state where there are four or more confirmed cases of COVID-19. Thankfully, and so far, that doesn’t include Phillips County where we do not have any cases at the time I am writing this. There are exemptions, for some, but at the end of the day, a mandate is, by definition, “an official order or commission to do something.”

Now, nobody likes to be told what to do, or not to do, by someone they disagree with, or someone they didn’t vote for, or for something they feel goes against their freedoms in this great land of ours. I still know people who refuse to wear their seatbelts, though it is the law, and better (or worse) yet, people who know how much alcohol they can handle and when they can drive drunk. It is your right to break the law, and it is the law’s right to send you to jail for doing so.

That said, I can’t imagine how local law enforcement, with all they are already tasked with, can be expected to monitor and uphold this mask mandate…it just doesn’t seem reasonable. The wearing of masks, and the COVID-19 virus itself, seems to have become very political even when the numbers of deaths across the country hit nearly 140,000 and in Montana, we have seen a spike in cases in the past few weeks.

Some people don’t trust the CDC, or the numbers I quoted above, or think that wearing a mask helps anything…some think it hurts. You have the right to think whatever you want, and I will never start any problems with someone who doesn’t wear a mask, but if you see me sporting one, do me the same courtesy and leave me alone about it.

A popular opinion when arguing COVID-19 is that the regular flu kills more people each year. Believe what you like, look up the actual numbers and maybe you will be swayed, or maybe scientists and healthcare professionals are lying to us (doubtful, but do you.) Just know that when flu season hits this fall, I will probably wear a mask then too because having the flu rots.

You respect me and mind your business, and I will do the same, deal?