Masked Man
Wearing a mask is not an effort by government to control us, nor has it diminished my rights as an American.
By Hank Silverberg
I had to fill my gas tank the other day. It was only the second time in three months, since I have not been going anywhere but the supermarket. When I walked into the convenience store to pay, wearing a mask and a hooded black sweatshirt (it was drizzling), I looked like a bank robber.
I confess I don't like wearing a mask. I have three of them now, all different colors and different materials, and not one of them is very comfortable. There's a homemade mask with superheros on it, passed on from a friend of my daughter. There's a funny colored green one sent for each of us by my wife's health insurer. And there's a black one I ordered from a Nevada-based company which to my dismay, turned out to be made in China!
But I wear them.
Why?
BECAUSE THAT, along with washing your hands often, IS WHAT THE MEDICAL EXPERTS SAY IS THE BEST WAY TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF THE CORONA VIRUS.
I am not just protecting myself, but also all the people I come in contact with. I don't have the virus but you never know when that can change, especially as we continue to re-open and people start having more contact with each other once again. One sneeze in the wrong direction from someone without a mask who is within six feet, and you or I can get the virus.
I spent two hours getting my car inspected this past week. It was two months overdue, but no problem. Virginia has given people some leeway on such things because we all had to stay at home in April and May. I wore the uncomfortable mask the whole time I sat in the auto shop waiting, just like I have done in the supermarket for weeks.
Wearing a mask is our civic duty right now. It is no great sacrifice of freedom.
My grandfather, Benjamin Silverberg, spent 13 years in a Czarist gulag in the early 20th century because he had the audacity to stop and listen to a political speech one day on the streets of Kiev. For that one stop, he sacrificed his freedom.
My father, Sidney Silverberg, stormed the beaches of Iwo Jima with thousands of other Marines to protect our freedom. He was wounded. That was a sacrifice FOR freedom.
All I have to do is wear a mask. That's no sacrifice at all for my freedom, or that of my neighbors.
I'm sure you have similar stories in your family. All you have to do is wear a mask.
Why am I writing this? Frankly, I am angry at all those people out there who think somehow wearing a mask is a political statement. It's not.
I am angry at the President who thinks wearing a mask is a sign of weakness. It's not.
And I am angry at all the people out there who won't wear one when they are supposed to, who threaten my health and the health of my family, even if we come in casual contact.
I am not sure how long wearing a face covering will be required or how long the social distancing will last. I miss baseball very much. The Red Sox have put out a mask with their logo on it, with the money collected going to charity. Maybe I will get one of those and add it to my wardrobe. Some fashionistas out there might want to get seven of them, one for each day of the week. If EVERYONE wears one, maybe we can hold down the darn virus until they create a vaccine.
Of note:
Half empty or half full? Donald Trump broke all the social distancing rules this past week by staging a campaign rally at an arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma where there had already been a spike in Covid-19 cases.
For days the White House had been saying a million tickets had been distributed for an arena that only held 19 thousand people and the place would be packed. An overflow event was planned. Protests were expected. Local police geared up for violent confrontations. Pundits were in a tizzy over the significance of it all and speculated that Trumpites would not wear masks and thereby get sick.
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| (This picture, of unknown origin was all over the internet) |
In the end, the arena was less than half full, the overflow event was cancelled because the overflow site was empty, and most of those who attended were not wearing masks. The protest outside was small. Tulsa police made just one very questionable arrest of someone sitting on a sidewalk outside the arena wearing a "hands up, don't shoot" tee-shirt. Inside the President spent much of the speech showing how he could drink a glass of water with one hand and explaining how he could run down a ramp. (That was harking back to his speech the week before at West Point.) Other than that it was his usual ha-rang of disinformation and insults which wound up those cult members who had bothered to come. Trump said they were "very brave" to defy the "thugs" in reference to the few thousand peaceful protesters outside, He blamed them for the small turnout inside. (No one was prevented from getting in.) Some of the right wing media picked up on a short incident lasting about 15 minutes where the street was blocked. But it was quickly cleared and anyone who wanted to be inside got inside.
Trump also blamed the media for the small crowd, though media coverage has never stopped his supporters in the past. He didn't mention fear of catching the coronavirus, which was probably the real reason some of his die-hard supporters stayed away.
We may still see a spike in Covid-19 as a result of that rally, though it will be hard to tell since people came from all over the country and will bring anything they caught back home with them. But frankly, to quote Willie Shakespeare, it was "much ado about nothing".
Meanwhile: (correction and update)
The President will violate the new restrictions on gatherings in the District of Columbia by holding a 4th of July celebration at the White House.
The city, which has yet to feel an expected increase in cases because of those massive protests these past few weeks, has moved into a "phase one" reopening as of Friday. That means gatherings are limited to 10 people. The Capitol 4th celebration is still on next month in what is being called a "virtual Capitol 4th". The usual concert will apparently be virtual, but with live fireworks. It's totally unclear how that will work.
Defying the city guidelines, Mr. Trump plans to hold a celebration on the south lawn of the White House and the nearby Ellipse that will include military demonstrations, a speech and a military fly over.
The Congressional delegation from D.C., Maryland and Virginia has sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Interior asking them not to risk lives doing this in the middle of a pandemic. They also criticized Mr. Trump's use of millions of taxpayer dollars to stage what will basically be a photo op at a time when that money would be better spent to fight the virus. The National Park Service spent $2.5 million on the regular public celebration witnessed by as many as 100 thousand people last year. There's no indication what Mr. Trump's photo op will cost.
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| (No traditional celebration like in past years) |
There's also concern the event will attract the general public to the National Mall. Such a gathering would violate the social distancing rules in place.
Mr. Trump tried to hijack last year's July 4th celebration by making a speech at the Lincoln Memorial and staging a military parade, but it didn't work. The 4th of July celebration in Washington has been staged for decades as a non-partisan event until Trump took office.
Statue update:
I note that statues continue to fall around the country. My regular readers know that I have promoted the idea of removing monuments to confederate leaders, but I am disturbed by the mob mentality that has torn them down.
Why? It's a matter of history. Robert E. Lee was a traitor to this country. So was Albert Pike, who's statue was toppled from it's D.C. pedestal this past week. Virginia is moving ahead with plans to remove Lee from his central location in downtown Richmond through legal means, and the same with this statue in Leesburg.
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| (Confederate Statue in Leesburg, VA) |
D.C.'s city council had been pushing for Pike's removal for some time. But where does the vandalism end?
In California, a statue of U.S. Grant was also torn down. Yes, he briefly owned one slave, whom he freed before he lead the Union Army in a war to free all American slaves. He should be honored for seeing the light and fighting and winning a just war.
(Grant's father was an abolitionist.)
George Washington, whose statue was also torn down in one place, did own slaves, but he also led the Continental Army in a revolution to create the nation freed from the tyranny of European monarchs who had played a major role in supporting and profiting from slavery in the Americas.
Let us remember that slavery was not an American invention. It came from Europe, Asia, and yes, Africa. We were surely not the first to outlaw it, but we were certainly not the last, either. Our country's original sin, not eliminating slavery in the beginning, did not endure. Our Founding Fathers were imperfect people, but without them, our experiment in Democracy would have never begun. Unlike confederate leaders, they should not be dishonored. Instead, they need to be examined, studied, and placed in context. Some people sometimes don't not want to hear this, but African tribal warfare played a key role in expanding slavery world wide and particularly in the Western Hemisphere. The articles linked below will explain some of it. It is not as simple as erecting OR tearing down a statue without context.
(For a short history of the African slave trade and slavery on the African continent, see these links.)
By no means is this an excuse or justification for American slavery or the treatment of people of color in the 157 years since emancipation. But history is not a simple thing. As I watched the protests over the last few week's my thoughts really focused on what can be done to handle the inequities now and fix this injustice which should have been dealt with long ago.
Renaming forts and eliminating confederate statues is symbolic as I have written before. But we need to keep the focus and the energy on real things like the criminal justice system, impartial policing and better housing and education that have been infected with systemic racism and effect not just black people, but Hispanics, Native Americans and other minorities as well.
Then there is this:
I caught this article while doing some scrolling on the web. Basically, it says some elections officials in Pennsylvania are worried that counting the votes in November could be hampered by late mail-in ballot and the coronavirus. There concern is based on trouble counting votes in the June primary earlier this month.
This is more worrisome than anything I have seen on voter fraud or voter suppression. My greatest fear is a scenario where it is not clear on election night who has won the Presidency. That would bring in the lawyers and make the Bush-Gore debacle of 2000 look like child's play. Donald Trump will not go easily into the night unless there is a clear-cut landslide victory for Joe Biden. Any trouble counting votes gives Trump the opening to challenge results. Heaven help us if that happens.
In the meantime, keep wearing your mask and stop complaining about it. You can wear one to vote if it's still necessary. There are worse things that can happen.
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome)
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