I was in my bank today and the manager, a small woman who loves to strut around wielding her ‘power’ and clearly is not used to anyone pushing back on her ‘rules’, publicly and loudly admonished me because I was not wearing a mask. “You really need to wear a mask the next time you come in here”, she scolded me. “Didn’t you see our sign by the front door?”
I responded, publicly and loudly, “actually, there is no Law forcing me to wear a mask in this State, it is optional and you really can’t keep me from banking here when mask-wearing is a CDC ‘recommendation’ and not the Law.”
She reddened “well, our Governor ordered it.”
I responded “our Governor can not order people to wear a mask. An ‘order’ is not a Law, and he has no legal authority to mandate people to wear one, never mind it can endanger people’s lives by forcing them to re-inhale their expelled CO2 from a bacteria-filled, moist mask. So is your bank prepared for a lawsuit if someone who is elderly or asthmatic falls over dead from lack of oxygen? Because if that happens, I can assure you, people will sue.”
At that point she lowered her voice and said sheepishly, “well, I am doing what I am told because I want to keep my job.”
I said “I get that, but maybe you should educate yourself about how the laws work, how tiny viruses actually are (they pass through these ‘face coverings’ easily), how dangerous it can be re-breathe your exhaled CO2 all day long, and how life-threatening wearing a mask for prolonged periods could be to many health-compromised people who become oxygen-deprived. There is a reason children under the age of 2 do not need to wear masks and why my gym does not require anyone to wear a mask there. And then you might want to take that new knowledge you’ve gained back to your senior management of this bank for them to consider changing their “rules”. She nodded silently.
We all have a chance to educate people around us. It takes a little courage, especially when you are surrounded by obedient mask-wearers staring at you and you are the outlier. But who knows what other person in that bank heard the message and will go home and do some research vs. “just following orders”? If I reached just one person who starts questioning the faulty logic of these ‘orders’, then I made a difference. You can too. ❤
House of GEMNEYEmz with Maria Zucchero Denkov gemneyemz.com 