#MaskUp: Is The Mask Mandate Unconstitutional

#maskup

Why is wearing a mask such an issue so many months later when so many people continue to die from this devastating Covid disease? My body my choice hasn’t been possible on other health questions. Why is it considered a must for this public health question? It isn’t a privacy question. I won’t go into it. But the pandemic is continuing to ravage the world. And we are in favor of public health measures that keep us safe. It’s not a political thing. It’s literally crazy to make this a political thing.

The hashtag #Maskup was circulating for a long time, and the CDC still says getting vaccinated and wearing a mask in crowds are what we need to do to halt the spread of Covid, especially with the Delta variant raging. This is not about you and your rights. It’s about us and our safety. You, whoever and wherever you are, are part of an us. That’s what the whole masking question is all about. A deadly disease has killed more than half a million people in our country. It’s not up for debate. So, why talk about constitutional rights? Masking up seems so simple a request. It’s like wearing a seatbelt. That is a law, too. And people fought that one, but it saved a lot of lives. Not driving while impaired is also a law. That one was also controversial, but has also saved thousands of lives.

What makes a law constitutional

I looked this up. What makes a law (or a national mandate like #maskup) constitutional is that it is in the public interest. You know we can’t just do anything you want, right? There are rules we have to follow. In terms of public health, it’s pretty simple.

It turns our that constitutional rights are subject to conditions. Whether the right to liberty, speech, assembly, freedom of movement or autonomy, all of these rights are held on several conditions. The most basic and important of these conditions is that our exercise of rights must not endanger others (and in so doing violate their rights) or the public welfare.

This means that you can exercise your freedoms as long as they don’t hurt or risk the lives of other people. So here we are in a global pandemic in which a serious and deadly communicable disease can be transmitted by asymptomatic carriers

This condition justifies a wide range of reasonable restrictions on our liberties. Believing otherwise makes the Constitution a suicide pact – and not just metaphorically.

#maskup is simple

Wash your hands and wear a masks like these when in public. Physical distance from other people. What could be more sensible? I look back to an article I wrote in the early days. Don’t panic, it’s not the end of the world. A few months later as the disease traveled across the country and more people died, I thought of taking the article down because it did seem like the end of the world. Now now more than a year later, there is hope for recovery, but the pandemic is far from over. There are flare-ups world-wide, and we do still have to take precautions.

What have we been doing at ROR

Here in Florida, we live in a community with many older people, and we wanted to protect them and ourselves. It was painful to cancel family events for more than a year, and we didn’t go on vacation. Our Connecticut family members did get the virus, but are now vaccinated and healthy. I visited in early July. Lindsey will have her first visit to the office since, gosh, we don’t remember when. We spent the year writing great content, doing videos, creating a fun recovery store. And yes, we have masks and fun chainsto accessorize your masks. Stay safe. We will get over this.