Harry's Gang: Masks are about human life, not political scoring

I am shocked how many people refuse to wear masks based on political beliefs.

I recall a few years back when a nudie bar opened in Scanlon. The outrage! As I remember, a group of local people went down there every night to protest and picket the club, including many members of the local religious community.

The nudie bar responded by proudly asserting that they were simply exercising their First Amendment right to freedom of expression. Anyone who dared to challenge the club was attacked as “anti-American” and was shamed by the bar as against freedom of speech, one of American’s most cherished civil rights. They even erected the biggest American flag I have ever seen in front of a liquor establishment, as if selling cheap booze while naked ladies danced around you was some great patriotic act.

I never believed that the bar’s owners were any great champions of free speech. I always felt that they were simply exploiting their rights in order to make a few bucks on a generally sleazy activity. There is little honor in pretending to be a great patriot in order to make money, but it happens all the time.

To be sure, many of the people who worked there were very fine people. My pizza joint delivered food there many times a week, and everyone seemed just about as nice as could be. I would not let my underage delivery drivers go there, though, which disappointed them quite a bit. Who would have thought teenage boys would want to go into such a place?

The anti-maskers make a similar argument. It’s puzzling to me, a person trained in the natural sciences, that so many people refuse to wear masks because, as they say, they won’t play into the liberal hoax that is the coronavirus.

I don’t buy it. I agree that wearing a mask in public is annoying. It’s uncomfortable and restrictive. You can’t see people’s smiles, and it’s hard for those of us with poor recognition skills to even know who it is saying hello to us.

But I don’t believe for a minute that those refusing to wear masks are making any kind of valid political statement. The pandemic would have hit us whether or not our governor is a Democrat or a Republican. Rather, I believe those people refusing to wear masks are so blind to their allegiance to their political beliefs that they have abandoned reality. Claiming they won’t succumb to political pressure is simply a way to cover up their insecurities, selfishness and stubbornness.

Covid-19 hasn’t really become a panic yet in Carlton County and, hopefully, it never will. I’m sure more research will come out regarding masks and things may change again. But I am scared that the virus sneaks in and spreads rapidly during the two-week period that carriers don’t show symptoms. It may have already happened. We don’t know yet. Suddenly, 30 percent of our population contracts the virus and we suddenly all start wearing our masks religiously. Of course, it will be too late — much like putting on a pair of work gloves just after the blister appears.

Some may continue to say “so what?” The virus isn’t that deadly and some infected show very mild signs. Well, gonorrhea isn’t deadly and some show very little symptoms, but I don’t know anyone who is willing to contract that disease. Most of us would prefer to stay healthy. If the virus spreads to just 10 percent of the local population, and just 10 percent of those need hospitalization, that would still overwhelm our local hospital. I’ll wear a mask to help prevent that catastrophe.

And woe to the person who tells me the virus kills mostly old people who would die soon anyway. My parents each died at 86 years old. I’d give just about anything to have had a few more days with them. Time at the end of life is precious, not expendable.

If you have a good reason why you refuse to wear a mask, I’ll listen. But it better make sense.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News and an attorney in Esko who hosts the talk show Harry’s Gang on CAT-7. His opinions are his own. Contact him at Pete.Radosevich@PineKnot News.com.