The debate over children wearing masks in schools continues to fester here and across the country. There are citizens protesting governors who are mandating masks to help ensure in-class learning continues and there are governors threatening to penalize schools districts that choose to require them.
Frankly, some of the antics are disturbing, especially with vaccination rates lagging and COVID-19 cases surging once again.
Silas House, a writer based in Kentucky, wrote a poignant essay for The Atlantic about the issue, observing that some Americans – a minority, thankfully, despite their noise – think only of themselves and no longer believe in the common good. I suggest you click the link above and take six minutes to read it in full.
Writes House:
” … I was taught to sacrifice my own comfort for the good of others, whether it be by volunteering my seat to elders in a crowded waiting room, letting a pregnant woman go in front of me in the grocery line, or giving half of my sandwich to a hungry classmate. I may not have always lived up to these standards, but I was taught to try. I’m sure I’m not alone.
“Sacrificing for the common good was something most of us were taught when I was growing up. Just a few decades later, I’m seeing people in my hometown, and all over the country, thinking only of themselves. They’re not just unwilling to make sacrifices for others during a pandemic; they’re angry about being asked to.”
Masking school-age children has become a line in the sand, even though House cites at least 49 scientific studies that emphatically state that masks are effective in the fight against COVID-19. “When I witness the vitriol swirling around the slightly uncomfortable prospect of wearing a little piece of cloth throughout the day, it is easy to grow weary,” House writes.
Among the arguments House dissects is that masks are making kids sick because they are breathing in the same carbon dioxide repeatedly, a claim that he notes has been widely debunked. House points out that doctors, nurses, factory workers, and others have long worn masks throughout the workday without adverse health effects.
And like nearly everything today, it seems, there are elected officials across the country who are making wearing masks a political issue.
Writes House:
“Maybe too few people today understand the necessity of putting aside one’s own comforts to help others. Perhaps our sense of community has suffered in the digital age. It seems to me, however, that most of the blame should go to politicians who care more about stirring up fear to defeat their opponents than they do about people’s lives or the economy. And I blame anyone who intentionally spreads misinformation to further their own agenda.”
House, however, believes all may not be lost.
“The majority of us—about 170 million, or roughly 62 percent of all Americans adults—are fully vaccinated as of this writing. … According to a poll earlier this month, 56 percent of Americans agree that masking indoors is necessary again.
“Those who are unwilling to sacrifice a small part of their daily comforts for the good of our country seem to be the loudest right now. But the statistics show that they are not in the majority. …”