Maybe it was inevitable, but as much as we didn’t want it, Governor Kay Ivey has put in place a modified “Safer-at-Home” order that requires you to wear masks as of 5:00 p.m. on Thursday.
A lot of rage followed this decision, but there seems to be some logical reasons for her decision.
Lt. Governor Ainsworth expressed support for masking up but isn’t a fan of the mandate.
Many agree, but this is a negligible concern at this point because the virus is spreading too fast. Over the last week, we have continued to see increasing numbers of both new coronavirus cases and deaths in the state of Alabama.
The status quo was not maintainable, and much like Ivey’s original Stay-at-Home order, the longer it takes to implement, the longer it will take to get past this illness.
Say what you want, the original order appeared to keep the virus at bay. Opening up — or at least how we opened up — seems to have let it loose.
Was that inevitable? Some think so.
Are we going to let it rampage through our society? Unlikely.
Should we? No.
So, now we have to wear masks to go out into the public. Cloth, surgical, or as former State Rep. Ed Henry said on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” “a t-shirt over my face” all seem to be acceptable under the new order.
Many are looking for ways around this mandate.
“I can’t wear one, my glasses fog!” Shhhhh, put on your mask.
“I am claustrophobic!” Shhhhh, put on your mask.
“These masks don’t stop microns…” Shhhhh, put on your mask.
“I’m not sick!” Shhhhh, put on your mask.
“They get dirty!” Shhhhh, put on your mask.
The masks are a last ditch effort to stem the tide, to slow the roll of the virus before the lockdown returns.
Resistance to this is equal parts amusing and sad.
Some people will say, “The government can’t make me wear a mask to protect other people.” But that is obviously false, as the government clearly can.
“It’s not in the Constitution!” Actually the power is granted by the Constitution, upheld during the 1918 Spanish Flu, and was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this very year.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote:
Our Constitution principally entrusts “[t]he safety and the health of the people” to the politically accountable officials of the States “to guard and protect.” Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U. S. 11, 38 (1905). When those officials “undertake to act in areas fraught with medical and scientific uncertainties,” their latitude “must be especially broad.” Marshall v. United States, 414 U. S. 417, 427 (1974). Where those broad limits are not exceeded, they should not be subject to second-guessing by an “unelected federal judiciary,” which lacks the background, competence, and expertise to assess public health and is not accountable to the people.
“But Roberts is a libe…” Shhhhh, put on your mask.
What that means is, even if the science is murky, state and local government can enforce health orders through fines.
Watching all the Twitter and Facebook “scientists” who are also Constitutional scholars moan that the mask doesn’t stop 100% of the virus is something that is accurate — but irrelevant.
That’s not the point. The point is to stop some of the virus. Your spittle, drool and droplets contain the virus, and keeping that in your mask is better than expelling it.
The end of this pandemic will come one day. The sooner the better, and we should throw everything we can at it.
I prefer that businesses stay open, and faces getting covered probably makes that possible. If this works, then we get through this faster and back to some form of normalcy. If it does not work then we are all heading back inside our houses.
The economy will crumble, careers will fail, businesses will be destroyed, kids will lose hope, my marriage will suffer.
Do you want this over? Shhhhh, put on your mask.
If this doesn’t work, and the pandemic isn’t under control soon, there will be no school, no college football, no jobs and no chance Joe Biden doesn’t win in November.
Shhhhh, put on your mask.
Listen:
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.
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