Look at actions, not at words, on masking

On April 18 a federal court vacated the mass transit mask mandate.

While the debate over masking and its effectiveness has been argued ad infinitum to a rhetorical stalemate with two parties of seemingly equal strength, the more instructive lesson is to see the broader reaction among regular people — a “democracy of action” if you will — as to what they really think about COVID precautions, restrictions, mandates, and their effectiveness. It is revealing.

United Airlines would not even wait for the next day to arrive, loudly proclaiming, within hours of the court ruling, that no masks would be required on their flights. First thing the next morning, Delta Air Lines, Lyft, and Uber all followed suit, making major media announcements of no masks required. American Airlines was more subtle, updating their website to say masks are “optional” on their flights.

And at airports today, I would wager that very few people would be found using masks, either.

Given this near universal response to the court’s decision, imagine what would have happened had the people, being of such like mind, had risen up and pushed back against the mandates when they were in place? This is why they try to keep us divided. Sometimes, however, you need a federal court to rein in an off-base, out of step, tone-deaf administration. But it need not be that way.

Matthew Rothchild

Marion