Pierre Obendrauf/PostMedia News
“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking”, are words to live by, penned by H. Jackson Brown, Jr, author of the best-selling Life’s Little Instruction Book.
In these COVID times, as I’ve come to call this phase of my life, character matters more than ever. We see a light being shone on it in the political arena as regions in many countries are facing elections for new leadership. The character of a leader tends to steer the behaviour of those being led. That’s why I”m glad I live in Canada, specifically, in New Brunswick, where people don’t have to work too hard to be WE people. Then there are those firmly entrenched in the ME zone with regard to adherence to wearing face masks. Actually, they’re more nose and mouth coverings, to prevent spread of droplets from person to person. Droplets that may or may not carry the COVID virus. We cannot possibly know if we are carriers/spreaders.
This past Saturday, I was in the city, dividing my time between wheeling and walking. While uprightly mobile, my own mask in place, I encountered a mask-free woman with a man who was wearing one; I commented on the lack of nose and mouth covering. She said she couldn’t wear a mask and left it at that, as did I. She was not socially distanced from people around her, some of whom were also maskless. Many teens and younger people amongst them.
This past Saturday, I was in the city, dividing my time between wheeling and walking. While uprightly mobile, my own mask in place, I encountered a mask-free woman with a man who was wearing one; I commented on the lack of nose and mouth covering. She said she couldn’t wear a mask and left it at that, as did I. She was not socially distanced from people around her, some of whom were also maskless. Many teens and younger people amongst them.
I’m not alone in wondering why so many are oppositional to wearing a mask. To use the “I have asthma,” or “I have a heart condition,” among many rationales for non-compliance, selfishly dismisses the rights of everyone else, particularly if non-compliance with mask-wearing is accompanied by zero social distancing.
I’ve read about the ‘face mask exemption cards’. Psst! They’re fake! I saw one online that was riddled with errors and had to chuckle. At least the author could have proofread before circulating hither and yon, which begs a question - do medical exemptions for face masks really exist? As a matter of course, coverings should not be placed on children under age 2 or anyone who has trouble breathing, is unconscious or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance. That’s reasonable.
Frankly, those who claim they can’t wear a mask for health reasons think they’re fooling the rest of us. They’re not! If they can wear a scarf over their face for seveal hours while outside in winter weather, they can sure as heck wear a covering for an hour or two in the mall or grocery shopping. Mutual respect is the order of the days ahead. The oppositional must accept that and just get on with their lives without making excuses for being boorish.
Though I’ve not consulted them, I’m sure that many health professionals would say that exemptions aren’t necessary. If one had serious burns on the face and covering it would cause pain, then of course, don’t wear a covering. That makes sense. But, with that, one must still socially distance.
Treating others as we would like to be treated is a maxim that many of us learned at home before we even started our sit down and be still formal education. It concerns me, given I live in a province with more aging/senior citizens than young people, that those who are young are not being respectful of their elders. The press on COVID is clear. It is here for the long haul unless people start taking it seriously and function in a way that flattens the curve and reduces spread.
Many families have lost businesses due to COVID; they will struggle for many years to come, so it’s incumbent upon all of us to just stop making excuses for not ‘going along to get along’ so that we can, as a province and as a country, get ahead of this virus and contribute to economic recovery across communities. Only when that happens will we be able to function with a greater degree of security that we are less at risk than several months ago. To those who continue to ‘push the envelope’, your behaviour puts everyone at risk. You have to know that. You have to accept that reality of this virus. It respects no one. Not even you.
As we move beyond our bubbles and expand our travels in and around this province and others, we absolutely must practice social distancing and mask wearing. It’s really not that difficult when we realize that doing just those two things ensures that we can stay ‘open for business’. Think about what that means for your family in the long term.
Carla Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with Miss Lexie, a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca
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