Rant #2,637: Smoke From a Distant Fire

 

I have come to the conclusion that many people are just plain stupid.
 
Yes, I mean stupid, and whatever synonym you want to call it: ignorant, dumb, dim, thick …
 
Call it what you want, but some people really aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed at all.
 
I saw the stupidity of some people yesterday, when I was shopping with my mother in our local supermarket.
 
Every shopper and every worker in the store was wearing a mask, and I will bet you that I can say for sure that every shopper and every worker in the store hates wearing the mask they had on yesterday.
 
But one shopper was, I guess, “smarter” than all of us, and she wasn’t wearing a mask, but she was wearing a visor, I guess so she could say that she was wearing a face "covering."
 
The problem is that visors are not considered face coverings, and they circumvent all the protocols that are being practiced in our fight to rid ourselves of the pandemic.
 
In New York State, it is illegal to enter a retail store without a face covering—not a visor, which it has been proven allows all those particles we are trying to avoid to come out of our mouths at a greater rate than a face mask does—and each and every supermarket I have been to has a sign out in front plainly stating that you cannot shop at the establishment without a mask.
 
Some people do forget their masks, leave them in the car, and in that case, the store will provide you with a face mask.
 
But this woman, well I guess she knows better, so it is a visor for her.
 
I alerted one of the store managers about this, and his cavalier response was that since she did have a face "covering" on, it was good enough, which clearly goes against his own store’s policy.
 
The woman was two behind my mother and myself, so I alerted the cashier about this, and he did thank me, but what can he do once she is on the line?
 
It is obviously way above these people’s pay grades to ask someone to put on a mask, but if 99 percent of the people are following the protocol—which I am sure that 99 percent of the people hate doing—why is this one woman deciding not to follow the protocol and deciding that she is going to make a statement by not wearing a mask?
 
So I put up the following message on Facebook, and the response by some people—two women in particular who should know better—cemented my belief that some people are just so darn stupid:
 
“I took my mother to the supermarket this morning, and I was dismayed to see a shopper without a face mask, only with a visor.
I told the manager, he said as long as she was wearing "something," it was OK.
I told the cashier we used, because she was two people behind us, and I know the shopper heard me, because she looked at me with a cool smirk on her face.
Here is the deal: I don't like to wear face masks either. I have very bad allergies, I can't breathe with them on, but I wear them anyway,   because that is the current protocol, and it really is the simplest thing you can do to help us fight this thing we are going through.
I am not going to insist that you get a vaccine, but I will insist that you wear a mask.”
 
Most people responding to my post seemed to get what I was saying. None of us like wearing the masks, but it the current protocol, no matter what you think about the virus and how it has been handled, it is not only the right thing to do, but it is the law, at least in New York State it is.
 
One person brought up the fact that the woman might have an underlying condition where her doctor has deemed she can’t wear a mask, but if she has that condition, my thought is that she shouldn’t be in the supermarket in the first place for her own protection.
 
I actually looked up the New York State law on this, and, in fact, it is against the law in the state to enter a retail establishment without a face mask.
 
And then others, two women who as I said should know better, took me to task for this, stating that I had no right to tell someone what to do and one took me to task for her family history of death and despair.
 
Yup, that is what I was taken to task for.
 
As I have stated several times here, I am in my own conundrum about this virus.
 
I feel that it has been used and abused for political gain by some, and that goes for both sides of the ledger.
 
I believe that President Trump lost the election because of his refusal to acknowledge the veracity of the virus in any way, shape or form. If he had simply worn a mask, he would have shown solidarity with the general population, and remember, he and his family did get the virus, happily very mildly, but they did get it, and he and his family have since been inoculated against it.
 
And then on the other hand, we have New York State Governor Cuomo, who exploited this virus to the hilt, even wrote an award winning book about it, and is now in gump up to his ears about various aspects of his personal and private lives that don’t add up, some related to his supposed expert handing of the virus itself.
 
Anyway, with that said, I do not think that wearing a mask is sending a political message to anyone.
 
Heck, I voted for Trump myself, and I still wear a mask.
 
I am still on the fence about what this virus is—is it a completely new strain that came out of nowhere or is it itself a variant of the flu, with its own unique variants—and I will never, ever tell anyone that they must get a vaccine to protect themselves from it.
 
As I said, even though I am not in line with some who have become completely paranoid by the coronavirus’ existence, my immediate family has not gotten the disease—and that includes my 90-year-old mother—but other family members around us have all gotten it to one degree or another.
 
My father in law died of it.
 
It is not their fault that they got it, any one of them, so there is no blame in what I say. Good people watching themselves get this thing, and others who could not care less don’t get this thing.
 
Whatever the case, wearing a mask is just such a simple thing to do. It takes so little effort.
 
I am not saying that you should wear it 24 hours a day, but when you are shopping, and when you are amongst people who are wearing the masks, you should have your mask on.
 
And when you are done, you can take the mask off.
 
What is the big deal about this?
 
You are not making a political statement while wearing a mask, you are making a statement about health—your health and others’ health.
 
What is the big calamity about wearing a mask?
 
Going back to the incident, the next time, I will take a photo of the perpetrator, and if the store refuses to do anything, I will contact them corporately.
 
The store’s reaction was dead wrong, and hopefully, that cavalier attitude, paired with the woman’s attitude, won’t lead to anyone getting sick from this thing.
 
Here is how I summed up what happened, directing this particular post at the two women who took me to task. And by the way, this is not the first time that I have seen people in the supermarket without a mask, and I am sure that I will see plenty of others … but for this one instance, here is how I summed up everything:
 
“Ladies, you are both missing the point of this post, and you are doing it purposely to satisfy your own agendas. The supermarket has a rule that is backed by New York State, that when you shop in a retail store, you must wear a mask. Period. No arguments. The woman who was in the store at the time had a visor on, which is not a mask. She should have been asked to put on a mask that the store would have provided. The store refused to do anything. This is not a political thing. This is a rule. If I have to wear a mask--which I loathe doing--then you do too. My brother in law, who commented here way up above, works in the supermarket, has for decades, and he says that this stuff goes on all the time. I have my vaccine shots, I did it for myself, have not had a problem. My family has not had one hint of the coronavirus, but seemingly all other family members have had it. My father in law died of it in the Vets home. It is the easiest thing to do to put on a mask. I can't breathe under it either. This has nothing to do with your family history of death and despair, and it has nothing to do with who you support politically. Just put on the mask or don't do your shopping in the store. Again, this is not a political thing, it is a moral thing. I don't like it either, but those are the protocols so I do it. End of story.”
 
The problem is, as I alluded to, it is NOT the end of the story, and until we are all on the same page with this thing, this thing won’t be leaving us as quickly as we might have hoped.
 
And that in and of itself is a sad commentary on our society.