Unmasked Thoughts

Picture by Djinna Gochis. 

There are a few things that I am thinking about today related to the now nearly six month restrictions nationally, and especially here in California. They are in no particular order. But they reflect, to my mind, a society gone amok, and one that is making its own citizens go mad in the name of public health and safety. 

I was in Home Depot today picking up some household cleaners and Spackle for a hole I made in my bedroom wall while removing a framed painting. A man in the elevator was wearing a black "mask" that looked more like it hung on a curtain rod, as it left this large gap between his mouth and his chin and regions where droplets could readily fall. Wouldn't have mattered to me at all, except that when I wore the far more full covering of a plastic shield that went below my chin, I was told that it was unacceptable. Also, lots of people are wearing paper disposable masks. But when I was rejected for wearing my plastic shield, I was told only fabric masks were acceptable. More and more people are wearing those disposable masks. My plastic shield is still considered insufficient. After an exhaustive experimentation with pretty much every kind of mask, I have finally resigned to the disposable mask, which despite its failure to be fabric, is accepted. I have also resigned myself to the daily face outbreaks caused by the masks of whatever variety. And the fact that breathing still is a chore while wearing any of them. 

Oh, and Home Depot was very crowded, and I doubt there was much social distancing, no matter how many signs exhorted the patrons. 

And the street is also crowded--with tents of the homeless that have exploded in the last six months. The once lauded Dream Factory that was Hollywood is now the center of waste management. All that we restricted masked passersby can do is to quickly pass the disease ridden detritus, perhaps to give (contactless,of course) a dollar or two to the man conducting an imaginary orchestra as he lay in his fraying belongings. But such is the residual freedom of America, to be mentally ill, sick, destitute, and drug addicted on the streets. 

Did Kamala Harris confirm what Mr. Biden said? I thought she did. That is, we will all be mandated to wear masks for at least three months once she and Mr. Biden are elected? That would be three months from JANUARY 2021. So expect to be wearing facial protection until at least April 2021. 

The Governor has this multi-tiered confusing plan for the reopening (and if warranted, the reclosing) of various businesses in different counties, based on color coding of the alleged ravages of the virus. My pastor said on Sunday that he would keep us all posted of where Churches fit into this panoply of public health protections. 

Said the Governor, he is extending the stay at home orders. And Newsom said the new system is “stringent and slow,” meaning that we are talking as one article I read said, something like we are in it for the "long haul".  

So what has got me so irked today? That the CDC reported only 6 percent of the deaths were Covid only and the balance were those with over 2 co-morbidities. Now, I see already that this is being disputed and re-interpreted, so as usual, there is no real consensus, though we are supposedly "following the science". 

I do not understand what this society is doing. Right now, traffic is back. People are out. Social distancing in the permitted arenas is virtually non-existent, but more people are wearing masks (not necessarily clean or property placed, but visually present). But business is still being devastated. Church going is restricted. 

People are still dying of things like Heart disease (647,457 in 2017), and accidents (169,936 in 2017) and a myriad of every darn thing living makes fragile human beings heir to, and masks are the sine qua non of our daily life in the United States. Add to the things being inflicted on the masked population--a level of pressure that is upping the suicide rate, and likely commitments to mental institutions. 

When the history of the once United States is written, the year 2020 will no doubt show itself to have been the watermark for its final fall. And the people with big brains of the various parallel universes which some scientists insist exist will laugh at the holographs of silly 21st Century barbarians in fashionable masks.

But the good news today, at least for unimportant me. I got a free bottle of hand sanitizer because I spent some target amount at Staples. I wonder if it will help the new zit that is developing on my face? But first, I better check the ingredients on the sanitizer. Might not be . . . .safe. And safety is the highest virtue.