Vietnam and Korea. Countless brave men and women died to protect our freedoms at home and abroad. Those wars claimed 144,466 American lives. And now, in 2020, many of these surviving veterans are back home- stuck at home. Because they know if they go out to shop or to eat, those around them who choose not to wear a mask could be sentencing them to death.

My father is a disabled Vietnam veteran- stuck with the consequences of agent orange exposure. He has these very fears.

167,000 dead. One was too many. SARS-CoV-2 has claimed more lives than the Korean and Vietnam wars combined. And everything we can do to hinder its spread and mitigate its death toll is a worthwhile cause.

RIGHT NOW in Washington Missouri - We need a mask mandate. We are asking the Washington City Council to mandate masks indoors when a social distance of 6ft cannot be maintained, and one that requires all food workers to wear one. We also ask the Washington City Council create and distribute common sense mask promotion signs, flyers, and other marketing materials.

Wearing a mask is an easy, common sense way to help END the community spread of the coronavirus. With it- we can save countless lives.

This petition acknowledges the following:

Precedence - What other "liberties" have we sacrificed for the good of our society?

Effectiveness - Do masks work? Is there a truly unbiased source?

Anti-Masking - A dangerous and deadly movement.

Patriotism - Why wearing a mask makes YOU a patriot. And not the other way around.

 

Precedence:

You get into your car to go to work. What's the first thing you do when you sit down? You probably buckle your seat belt. It's almost reflex at this point. Sure- it was a bit uncomfortable when you were a kid, but you're so used to it now you don't even notice it. I'll even bet you were wearing shoes and pants when you got in your car to go to work- SHOCKING!

As a society we are comfortable giving up certain liberties in order to create a functioning society. You carry a drivers license. You pay taxes. You drink, dare I say, the safe levels of chlorine and flouride in your local tap water. All these go against your individual liberty, but help create a more agreeable and just society.

You've probably heard this Benjamin Franklin quote: "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Well, OK. But Benjamin Franklin didn't live in the 21st century. Germ theory wasn't even around yet. Neither was chlorinated, or therefor safe, drinking water. It would be safe to assume Ol' Benny's quote might not apply to public health issues.

As Ralph Nader, the author of a groundbreaking book on automobile research (Unsafe at Any Speed), stated on the adoption of the seat belt: "There are men in the automotive industry who know both the technical capability and appreciate the moral imperatives. But their timidity and conformity to the rigidities of the bureaucracies have prevailed. When and if the automobile is designed to free millions of human beings from unnecessary mutilation, these men, like their counterparts in universities and government who knew of the suppression of safer automobile development yet remained silent year after year, will look back with shame on the time when common candor was considered courage."

 

Effectiveness:

Yes, a mask is effective. Yes you can breathe in it. If construction workers can wear a N95 mask in the Missouri heat and humidity all day long- you can wear a cloth covering indefinitely. No it won't bring down O2 levels. Wear a mask- be a patriot says the CDC.

Get the point? I can provide more research, available here.

Not only are masks effective- so are mask ordinances. Take a look at the results in Cape County Missouri. A mask ordinance itself is typically unenforcable. Not much can be done to make you wear a mask if you really, really, really, don't want to. But the idea is that we're taking this seriously. That we care. That the city wants you to wear a mask.

The sooner we wear a mask the sooner we can get back to events like the Washington Chamber of Commerce's Chili Cook Off! And other fantastic activities that bring our community together. It's all about getting the numbers low enough to ditch the masks and get back to normal.

 

Anti-Masking:

A dangerous, and stupid, problem. Seriously!? If it's your personal liberty to not wear a mask- I should be able to personally sue you for negligence if you infect me or a loved one.

Many times Anti-Maskers fail to prove one shred of concrete scientific evidence for their point. Instead they implore you to think like them based on personal experience and a false self-promoting sense of entitlement.

Anti-Masking is anti-science. And often times it goes hand in hand with anti-vaxxing. An even stupider trend. Don't even get me started on climate denial, anti-fluoridation, or worse, QAnon.

 

Patriotism:

We bought war bonds. We give to charities and donate at church. We sew blankets for the poor, round up at the register, and donate to food banks. Selfless things. Imagine if being selfless was as easy as wearing a piece of cloth on your face. It could save the life of your parents, your grandparents, or a guardian veteran.

Wear that mask. It looks good on you, my fellow Americans.