Going Without A mask, Freely

I LIVE IN a small town in a small confederate states in which the confederate flag is flown often and the nearby university town is the only interruption of an intellectual wasteland. An "intellectual wasteland" is defined as any geographic area in which a majority of the inhabitants are Republicans, support Donald Trump, and do  not believe in evolution nor climate change, because neither is mentioned in the bible. That settled, the current pressing concern is whether to enact a city ordinance requiring wearing face masks in public. An easy decision, you might think, in the middle of an out of control viral epidemic. A public hearing to discuss the matter at which attendees were required to wear masks and to sit six feet apart produced quite an uproar, mostly against the proposed ordinance.The comments were mostly against common sense and public safety, and in favor of the freedom of the individual to spread disease. From behind their mandated "Trump 2020" face gear came the banal, predictable slogans. "I can't breathe" was the most repulsive, "My Face, My choice" the most creative, among those etched on hand made placards. Are all these right wing reprobates unaware that their freedom ends where public safety begins, that the unwitting assault with a deadly virus is assault? There is no other country on this planet nor any other planet in which wearing a face mask is an issue, in which some alleged freedom to not wear one in the midst of a viral epidemic is a political issue. Only in these United States of Amnesia is such a thing even possible. In other countries they understand that wearing a face mask saves lives, their government tells them to, so they do.Not coincidentally, there is no other country on this or any other planet in which the Covid 19 epidemic is totally out of control, as much as it is in these United States of Arrogance. Brazil has their own insane right wing demagogue president, but are still a distant second. All across America's viral inundated fruited plain angry arrogant Americans gather together mask-less, in large numbers, to celebrate their freedom to destroy each other. The motion to pass a city ordinance requiring wearing a mask in public was tabled after three hours of insipid debate, only a recommendation was issued, leaving we the people free to return and debate it again another day, those who are able to get out of bed.