Perhaps I’m just a simple person. Perhaps I’m looking at this all wrong and I lack the “common sense” a few of you say to see what you see in state government enforced mandatory mask “laws” that rob people of choice. I don’t judge anybody for wearing them or not wearing them- I simply believe God is a God of free will and choice.
I had a real nice visit with the health department inspector who stopped by my market today. Seems after I addressed my business Facebook audience (very respectfully) about how I’m choosing to show people love & respect, live my life, run my business, and provide for my family, that somebody filed a complaint that I wasn’t enforcing masks & would rather give folks a choice. Our meeting was pretty cut and dry up til the point where she said “you wearing a mask could save a life- what if it was your grandmother?” **Silence** I wish you all could’ve been there for what happened next, because you could’ve heard a pin drop. I looked her dead in the eye and said “funny you should mention my grandmother. She actually died last week. And no, not of Covid. Although it ran its course through the nursing home despite the fact that it was on lockdown and EVERYBODY wore masks. Regardless of the ineffectiveness of the protocol, my grandma still spent the last 4 months of her life scared and alone, locked in a tiny bedroom at her nursing home with no family, no friends, and absolutely no contact other than medical care. All they allowed was one person, my dad, to be there in time to see her draw her last breaths.”
Hot angry tears welled up in my eyes and seared down my cheeks as I sat there staring at her, and I said “You see all this stuff around you? You see the pen you just handed me? It all has had human contact and is covered in germs. EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is a carrier of germs that could contain a virus. So it’s impossible to stop the virus with the current mask protocols. Sure, you can stop some cough & sneeze droplets, but you CANNOT stop a virus with a piece of cloth covered in germs shoved in and out of pockets, purses, and bags. But what you can stop is love. You can stop joy. You can completely eradicate hope. Which is what my grandma lost when she lost the will to live because she was forced to do life alone. Not once was she concerned that somebody without a mask would come into her room. She was only concerned that nobody was coming. She wanted a hug. She wanted a smile. She wanted somebody who loved her to hold her hand. So don’t sit there and tell me that me wearing a mask could save my grandma’s life, because the protocols being enforced are what robbed her of spending what was left of it with the people she loved.”
So perhaps I’m just a simple-minded person who wanted to see my grandma one last time, and I should just get over it. Perhaps I just need to care more about the Covid deaths than the unnecessary tragic demise & death of MY last remaining grandparent. OR perhaps I’m not the one that has a common sense issue after all. Perhaps it’s those who think it’s “in the best interest of all of us” to force everyone into their preference of wearing masks. Even though everybody wore masks in my grandmas nursing home and the residents still got Covid. (Because the masks didn’t stop it.) And even though my uncle Dale just tested positive yesterday in his nursing home (because the masks didn’t stop it.) As stated before, I don’t have a problem with those wearing and believing in masks. I don’t judge you or treat you differently because your opinion differs from mine. I wear a mask into every business that requires it because I respect the business owner’s right to make a decision on their own property.
This is the last picture I have of my grandma. I was told she passed peacefully. But I wouldn’t know, because I wasn’t there. I was here. Wearing a mask in public trying to “do my part” to save other people’s grandmas.
So do me a favor- if you’re one of the few who think our freedoms of choice, life, love, and liberty should be stripped away for “the public good”…………..one of the few who think that quantity of life is more important than quality of life…….one of the few who believe that all of this nonsense is in everybody’s best interest………
Then please unfriend me now and don’t ever set foot on my property again. Man does not live on bread alone, but the word of God. And my God knows exactly how to sustain me without sacrificing my beliefs and character to earn a nickel from those who would give up the freedoms that my grandpa fought for in WWII. As he sheltered in piles of dead bodies to stay alive to push on to join the next unit to fight for my family’s freedom. YOUR family’s freedom. And I can assure you he did NOT have a mask to protect him from the horrible diseases found in the human remains of his fallen brothers. It’s not some meme to my family- it’s our history. Our heritage through the generations that my other grandpa fought for in the Korean War. That my Uncle and Father-in-law fought for in the Vietnam war. That my cousin and brother-in-law fought for in desert storm. And that my oldest son spent a year fighting in Iraq for. As sure as I live and breathe and have a voice in this life, you can take “what’s best for all of us” right on down the road. I won’t quit praying for you or treating you with the kindness I always have, but I dang sure won’t miss your business.
Respectfully,
Kathy Brown
God Bless America, Land of the FREE and home of the Brave!!!!!
Kathy, I was so moved by your post, I totally agree with your opinion, and would feel the same as you do.
People seem to have lost the ability to think for themselves, and only do as they are told. I do not wear a mask unless going into a shop as its now mandatory. Most older people are wearing them as they walk alone in the street, where is the logic? They have no idea that just breathing back in Co2 can be a very good way of making yourself very ill.