By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
I was reading an article about how in Oregon the Democrat Governor, Kate Brown, is expanding, again, her orders regarding COVID-19. Like other governors, she is doing it without legislation, expecting people to treat her authoritarian overreach with executive orders, which are not legally binding, as law. In the article, one sentence especially caught my attention:
State epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger said if you see people you know not following the guidelines, “call them out on it.”
The attitude of having neighbors turn against neighbors is even happening in my own, very conservative, community of Murrieta, California. A few weeks ago someone slammed me against the wall for not wearing a mask, saying as he did so, “Wear a f***ing mask, a**hole!” A few days ago an old woman began to give me the third degree while we were at the grocery store, and while my wife decided to wear a mask, I was not. When the elderly woman was finished with her finger-wagging lecture of how I am the type of person killing people, my wife pulled off her mask and said, “What are you worried about, you have a mask on.” I, then, finished with, “I have medical exemptions, but if you want to force me to wear a mask, I will need your name so that I know who to sue for violating my rights as a disabled person as you force me to wear a medical device, which also means you are guilty of practicing medicine without a license.”
I can see them now, running their hands together, “Mu-wa-ha-ha-ha-ha, that’ll stop Trump in his tracks.”