Gather around, while I tell you a story. This is going on today, in your hometown. On your street. Possibly even in your home. What businesses are open for people to shop are asking people to wear masks. They are asking people to maintain a safe distance. In many cases, even the government is stepping in to force this behavior. And some people feel that this is overstepping their rights, especially here in America. The good ol’ U. S. of A., where we cherish these ephemeral constructs so much we are willing to extinguish the bright light of life to protect them.
This all dates back to a little document drafted sometime in the first half of the year 1776. It was signed on July 4th, that same year. There’s an often-quoted line from this little bit of parchment, that goes like this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (Declaration of Independence: A Transcription). Note that this says “the pursuit of Happiness” and not “Happiness.” So, let’s dive in, we have time after all. Gather around the fire with a nice glass of iced tea and dive into this thought experiment with me. I promise it’ll only hurt a little.
We’re going to look at a city, Anytown USA. This is your city, this is my city, this is the city we love and cherish in our fondest memories. This is a city of history, of wonder, of excitement. Next door to us is that elderly couple. Ed and Samantha got married in 1951 but didn’t get to celebrate their honeymoon until 1953. In fact, that’s when Ed got to meet his two-year-old daughter for the first time. Between their wedding day and when Ed was reunited with Sam, he was a medic in Korea, where he spent two years making decisions about which young men lived and which would die before they made it to a MASH unit.
Down the street, we have a lovely couple in their late twenties. You used to see them goofing around, playing, and laughing all the time. They would go on a jog through the neighborhood together every morning. But the last two months, you’ve only seen Patrick. What happened to Gary? Well, he’s a nurse working at the hospital, and the last two months he’s been dealing with the crisis. Because of that, he’s been living in a hotel, driving twice as far to get to work every day. Patrick is home, alone, hoping that Gary can get off work for two weeks just so they can share dinner together with more contact than Facetime. What you don’t know is that Patrick is on immunosuppressants from a transplant when he was a teenager, so Gary can’t come home and risk him getting sick.
Across town, there’s Marie with her three kids. She can’t get sick. Not because of any mystical reason, but because she can’t afford to get sick. She doesn’t have health insurance because none of her three jobs give her enough hours to qualify for their health plans. They offered her to stay home and be safe, but they wouldn’t pay her unless she came in to work her shifts as “an essential worker.” Add that to the fact that she’s now being forced to home-school her children. You might ask where is the kids’ father in all this? Well, she last saw him two years ago, a little bit after he got back from somewhere in Iraq. They said it was a touching service, but she only remembers the pine box being lowered into the ground.
Uptown, Jennifer is getting ready for the day. She takes about a dozen pills and dons her own facemask to get groceries for the week. Thankfully, Sarah is able to come with her today and help her do the shopping. She looks a little weird while wearing the medical gloves and a mask, but her doctors told her she must. It’s all thanks to the parting gift her two-timing ex-husband left her with. While she may have got the house and a car in the divorce two years ago, he also left her with HIV.
Downtown, living in one of those new trendy condos with his girlfriend is Jacob. He’s a student at Anytown University, working on his computer science degree, though he’s been an online student only two months. They say he’s quite gifted with computers and will make a great game developer someday. He hopes that it might be possible. He was diagnosed with leukemia last year and has been on aggressive chemotherapy and is even more terrified of going for his treatments now.
And finally, there’s me, your neighbor, your cousin, your mother, your sister, or any number of people just like me that you know. One in thirteen people you know, in fact. We have this little chronic respiratory issue called “Asthma.” Some of us just have issues occasionally, some of us are completely debilitated by it, but it significantly impacts our lives. We have medications, we carry inhalers, and this virus loves us. Oh, and just in case it wasn’t bad enough, some of us find any restriction to our breathing (such as wearing a mask) can cause an asthma attack.
See, the mask that you’re being asked to wear doesn’t protect you. It was never intended to protect you. That mask is there just in case you caught the virus but didn’t show any symptoms. Or if you caught it and haven’t shown any symptoms yet. The mask is there to help reduce the chances of you spreading the virus to us, the vulnerable population. Your minor inconvenience of wearing a mask is there to protect our right to Life. So please, wear the stupid mask and deal with your minor inconvenience.
