By Bill LaCroix, Victor
At a recent Ravalli County Commissioners’ meeting to ‘develop a message about COVID-19’, one man stood up to proclaim that he was an ‘Americanist’, which meant (to him) that he wasn’t responsible for his neighbors’ wellbeing. The commissioners, who apparently are also ‘Americanists’, agreed, declaring quite adamantly to the mostly-unmasked people in attendance that they weren’t interested in infringing on people’s ‘liberty’ by being the ‘mask police’, that they would settle for ‘encouraging’ people to act responsibly while letting their fellow ‘Americanists’ decide how much harm or benevolence they choose to visit on their neighbors.
Well, I’m only someone who’s lived in Montana for the last four decades and whose ancestors have only been on this continent for the last five centuries. I do have a keen interest in U.S. history and have never come across this new breed of impervious citizen before, but I’ll admit that more than a few bold movements have been woefully unreported on these last few hundred years, including this ‘Americanist’ thing. Maybe I just read too much and am therefore ignorant, but this child of pilgrims still feels entitled to share a few facts and ask a couple questions of our commissioners who are getting a good salary on my dime in order to speak for me.
It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to observe that both traffic laws and Covid-19 mandates are enforced on behalf of public safety and welfare. This is easily demonstrated by simple math. Since January there have been 167 traffic fatalities in Montana. In that same timeframe Montana has seen 365 Covid-19 deaths. Four of those Covid deaths and two traffic deaths (that I’m aware of) have been in Ravalli County. In other words, there are at least twice as many Covid deaths in our state and county than fiery scenes on the highway, yet traffic laws clearly meant to oppress citizens’ freedom to drive recklessly are still enforced while mask ordinances that would muzzle an Americanist’s right to whine but would potentially save twice as many lives are not? I’d agree with any freedom-loving ‘patriot’ that not all traffic deaths would be avoided if everybody drove as if somebody else’s life depended on it, but some would be. So why does a mask ordinance that would save twice as many of those random lives get a pass while the city of Hamilton is still writing $100 tickets for going 29 MPH in a 25 MPH speed zone? If the commissioners’ logic of not being the ‘mask police’ is followed to its natural angle of repose, should we expect the police to ‘encourage’ citizens to not drive drunk while acknowledging that it’s every citizen’s constitutional right to drive drunk if she wants to? Should the correct response to a drunk driver or a maskless ‘patriot’ be, “is that freedom I smell on your breath?”
I don’t know if any of my ancestors were actively involved in the Salem Witch Trials, if they were passive bystanders or if they actively spoke out in resistance against tyranny. I do know some of them were involved in some pretty sad wars against the indigenous people they sought to displace and that history is a lesson we either learn or don’t. I also know that everyone who attended that commissioners’ meeting – barring one individual – failed to wear a mask. That meant that folks like myself who take personal responsibility in respect to my neighbors seriously as well as my own health can’t attend public meetings convened to discuss the public’s business in a public building because the commissioners have decided to opt out of enforcing ordinances that reflect nothing but basic human decency. This is undemocratic by definition, which begs the real question here. With such doings afoot right under our (masked or unmasked) noses, I think We the Taxpayers who foot the bill for these public officials’ gold star health plans but who don’t share their peculiar political ideology should hear from them on where they stand on this thorny issue of Democracy. It’s a pretty simple question. Do they believe in it or not? Can we participate in our democracy while protecting our loved ones and ourselves or do the commissioners really believe those who don’t share their worldview deserve less freedom as the new, bold ‘Americanists’?
Democracy, then, commissioners. It’s such an old-fashioned word, but a simple yes or no will tell us all we need to know.
Roger Mitchell says
Democracy? What is democracy except the will of a majority imposed and forced upon the unwilling minority? America is not a democracy, but a constitutional republic, which means that everyone is heard, including those you don’t agree with and the elected leaders take into account all those myriad opinion in making public decisions. Sometimes the leaders act in ways which most people support, sometimes they don’t. It just might be that the commissioners ARE responding to the will of the majority on this mask issue. Until bona fide studies are done, there is no way to determine that except to hold a finger to the wind.
You said that only one individual wore a face mask at the recent commissioner’s meeting. Whoever it was doesn’t matter, but if true, then your argument in favor of “democracy” falls flat on its muzzled face. More probably, the vast majority of people do not want to be ordered to wear a “face covering” and the commissioners are respecting those desires. Kudos to them for withstanding the political pressure!
You say that you take personal responsibility seriously with respect to your own and your neighbor’s health. What a load of virtue signalling! What this really means is that you have decided that your neighbors MUST wear a mask because you have determined they need to. You are attempting to impose your personal version of morality on them. What you are saying is that you are responsible, but your neighbors who disagree with you are not. Who made you the judge of your neighbor? Take the beam out of your own eye before you try to take the splinter out of hers!
If you can’t attend a commissioner’s meeting because nobody wears a mask, then stay away. That is your decision and I support it. Don’t try, however, to force everyone else into your rigid, opinionated viewpoint and then claim moral and political backing for it. Whether a face mask works or doesn’t, whether Covid is real or a fraud, whether an existential threat looms or not, you still have a choice in the matter. If you believe that your life is in danger because of your attendance, then don’t go. If you believe that your mask will protect you and the others around you, then why is there such an uproar over the unwillingness of others to act like you do?
You say you have a “…keen interest in American history”, yet you have never “…come across this new breed of impervious citizen before”. New breed of impervious citizen? Gosh’amighty! Good thing the Covid Monster arrived to expose them and their unAmerican attitudes for everyone to see, so that they might be shut down!! Right, and the history of America has never been about the struggle of individual people “…yearning to breathe free…”, as the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty puts it. It’s interesting how so many people who put their faith in Democracy (deliberately capitalized to imply deity and transcendence) rarely or never discuss individual liberty. Emma Lazarus had it right, though, and her words ring true throughout the real American history, which you evidently haven’t read about.
To the commissioners of Ravalli County, I say, “Carry on. I’ll back you up.”
Mike Miller says
Excellent!
Sidenote: A covid-19 particle size is .1 micron. If a person isn’t wearing a mask that’s capable of filtering .1 micron sized particles (fun fact~ even an “N95” mask only filters down to .3 microns) mask that’s serviceable, and worn CORRECTLY, they’re either ignorant, or just another ‘virtue signaling’ ‘social justice warrior’ demanding we conform to untruths and false fixes.
I refuse to ‘do something, anything!’ that fails to fix the problem.
Let’s not forget the other fun facts that heart/lung disease (where’s the SJW outcry against Mickey D’s and cigarettes?) and suicide are a higher mortality risk that this virus’; people like Bill LaCroix are factually more of a life threat to themselves than this new virus.
Larry Campbell says
Droplets and aerosol particles that contain Cororna are bigger than the virus and more prone to be filtered by a mask.. It’s all a matter of percentages. Same with mandatory speed limits set for improving highway safety.
Mike Miller says
You state wearing a mask to catch the water/vapor droplets protects you. Wrong. Then those water droplets dry out and you suck covid-19 right into your lungs through your ineffective mask. Nothing like having a catcher’s glove to streamline that virus right into your airways. I’ll go maskless, thanks.
Thankfully, according to the Montana covid site (https://montana.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=7c34f3412536439491adcc2103421d4b), the survival rate is +/-99%.
All you Chicken Littles need to start listening to the science, and the press needs to stop sensationalizing the negative aspects.
Larry Campbell says
I pointedly did not say it would protect me, Mike. I am more concerned about others. That may sound foreign or far-fetched to you. And I will comment that your reading comprehension may be hindered by your ideological race to criticize any positive effects of masks slowing the pandemic.
Mike Miller says
Larry Campbell, I stand corrected. You pointedly didn’t say it would protect you.
The fact remains masks cannot stop the spread of the virus, as the virus is too small for ALL masks to filter out.
Pointing out scientific facts is hardly criticizing
Derek says
well then, maybe “freedom” gives me the right to drive drunk, 90 mph up and down the street in front of your house. how would you feel about that? Don’t you dare try to call the cops on me and curtail my freedom.
Bill LaCroix says
So you don’t believe in democracy. Thank you for making that so clear in front of whoever reads this. But I was asking the commissioners. Such a simple question and such a simple answer you gave. Maybe they can be so kind as to do the same. Thanks again.