A fire begins deep in the forest as lighting strikes a single tree. As that tree is consumed, two trees near it begin to catch, then finally are also engulfed. Soon there are six trees, then eight all burning at once, as the first three are already burned out. The fire continues to spread from tree to tree till it has burned down the side of an entire mountain, hubdreds of trees gone, then it crawls down the other side, and makes its way to the next mountain and the next. Eventually, the fire consumes miles of wildreness, sending life scurrying out of its way, millions of trees lost to the flames and smoke.
Fires like this don’t burn at a rate of every tree at once. They don’t just stop because trees stand in their way. Trees cannot will the fire to end. The fire will get them, or it won’t. It moves in the directions easiest for it to go, with the wind, up the hills, and it jumps for miles as burning embers are carried from one place to the next, starting seperate burns that eventually may burn together again, or may go two different ways. No tree has a say in the matter. They are rooted where they are, no will to speak of, no way to change where they stand, or to protect themselves from the coming flame.
An infectious disease, a virus, burns through a population like a forest of moving trees, able to walk, to carry the flames from place to place as they go about their day. They unknowingly carry the flames with them, setting others alight, including their friends, families, co-workers, and everyone else they come into contact with. The biggest difference? The population of human beings have will, and knowledge, and they know the fire is set, the flames are among them.
In the modern age, we come to a time when there is another factor, too. We are able to contact eachother at the speed of light, person to person, place to place, almost anywhere on the globe. We can tell eachother that the fire is coming, and we can then do something about it, namely, wash our hands, wear a mask, don’t touch our faces, practice social distancing.
The whirlwind of the pandemic is still only gaining speed in mid July, 2020. Some will stand as trees in the forest and burn. They will set alight others around them who will do the things necessary to survive, and those have, and will die. The stubborn ones, willfully are putting everyone in danger.
The argument has been made that it is their right not to wear a mask, and they will not be told what to do. You bet when they get stopped by a police officer, that seatbelt gets clicked on, and they will be asked if they know why they were stopped, out of a myriad of laws telling them how to drive. They will be wearing clothes, even though I could just as easily argue that clothing is a Socialist Agenda to force them to do something for other people’s benefit. The drivier will submit to a sobriety test if told to, and if they fail it, they will be arrested on the grounds they are an endagerment to the public. I could go on about everything. But in the end, wearing a mask in public is not the law. It is an extrordinary request for the same reasons general safety has been encoded in so many other laws. It is a chance for a democracy to show it has the educational standards not to need a law.
Yeah, you can bet that many of the anti-maskers will also be the ones bitching at “all the stupid safety labels on everything.” They should have the common sense to recognize the dangers without the labels, right? Well?
The human forest is on fire. Some will ony be singed, some will only be scorched. Some will be burned to the ground. The desolation that remains is a choice.
And finally, I want to address the “I’ll just tough it out if I get it,” argument. The mask was never about you. It was about everyone else around you. I don’t care if you die in agony alone in a sterile bed in an ICU. I care about people like the nurses and doctors that will be looking after you, the people who clean in the hospital, take out the trash. I care about the pharmacy workers, the equiptment support personell and the porters who will be working in close proximity to you as they stuff a hose in your throat, and down into your lungs to force oxygen into you in a desperate bid to keep you alive. I care about the ones who will put their families and friends at risk for you. I care about the people who care that much about you, not you, who does not have the care to just put on a mask.
I live in an area where it is apparent that it is going to burn hard before the end of the year. Most people where I live will not wear a mask, and even more so, they gather for private parties. When I was in town today, the local cinema had a sign out front; “E.T. tonight. Free.”