mask rate
I guess my opinion has been shaped a little by being married to a sociologist for nineteen years. Lately I've become interested in mask rate.
I am sitting in a parking lot in the center of my village where they have free wi-fi; basically I'm waiting for my son's basketball practice to end. I have a lot of writing to do but I don't force myself at times when it doesn't flow naturally. So here I am watching whether people wear masks or not, and speculating as to their reasons.
What's sociologically interesting is that New Mexico is a lot like Texas, except that it has a governor that was pro-active in taking shut-down steps and even made masks mandatory. The people are like Texans; most of them
were Texans at one point or another (including us), and have a natural disinclination toward anything that restricts their freedom.
This little tourist town is showing me about 50% of the people walking its streets wearing masks. They tend to come in groups - a whole group wearing them, or a whole group not wearing them. Single or double people may or may not be wearing them. Some people carry masks, around their necks for example, but don't wear them. Presumably they put them on upon entering a store.
50% is actually better than you get some places. There's a barbecue place in town where people line up outside - they probably don't get 20%. 20% may be more accurate for a whole swath of the town's activities. The tourists, coming from places like El Paso and Mexico, don't want to offend us.
The question to me is whether the governor's proclamations, even making mask-wearing a law, have helped any. Sometimes it seems like we are governed more by group-think, or a kind of not wanting to stand out too much. One store in town requires them, and sometimes even has people at the door checking to make sure you have a mask when you enter. The other, a convenience store, doesn't, and gets about 20%. I''m thinking, with all these Texans, it's just a matter of time. But the virus doesn't seem to have passed through there yet. We're still 0 for our zipcode, and though Texas and Arizona are wallowing in it, we are really not. Most of New Mexico's cases are in its reservations, or its prisons, or the cities.
That's another thing that might influence the rate - our perception of how much difference it might make. Seems to me, if you're from around here, and you don't really believe anyone has it, that's not much of an incentive. I certainly don't believe
I have it. But I wear the N95- I'm more interested in protecting myself than in being socially thoughtful. I found these old N95's in my shed, that we bought from this old welder who died hunting, and to me, I don't care how old they are, they look like business, and they're just about right for me. I wear them. I'm not taking any chances.
But to me it's a matter of curiosity. "Only in America could something like wearing masks become a political symbol," I read somewhere. It's really not a political thing, and shouldn't be. People should just do the right thing because it's the right thing. And yet, I can see on the streets of my own village, that's not how it's working. America is embracing this virus like it
wants to go home and give it to everyone.
No, seriously, I recognize that everyone's different, and it's harder for some people to put on the mask than others. It's a sensitive issue and you just can't force them. And to some degree, it's not even that related to how much they know about what's happening in Texas, or what Fauci just said, or how mask rates affect transmission. They may
know that masks are good, or they may convince themselves that they're not.
We would have to do very subtle subconscious marketing to get people to change their ways. It would have to be a coordinated national effort, consistent, that hammered the television with public service ads that were very carefully done. The idea would be to show that wearing masks was good for everyone and helped control the spread of the disease. Obviously that's not happening. We have skyrocketing numbers, overflowing ER's, panicking medical workers. It's getting ugly out there, just looking at Texas and Arizona alone. So it may be too late to even speculate. But it would be good if somebody did
something. And I have a hint: stopping testing is probably not the answer.
Police Community Relations
Just by chance, right before the coronavirus hit, I moved to a remote canyon in southeastern New Mexico. My nearest town now is twenty miles away, and has fewer than a thousand people. Mountain people tend to be very conservative, anti-big city, anti-big government, pro-gun.
The police here are incredibly friendly. I have a son who's black, and they found out who we were right away, and were friendly from the first minute. I don't know if those two are related or how related. There are a lot of people in the area who knew who we were and where we lived, right away, too, but everyone's been nice to us so far.
Everyone.
So I'll be the first to recognize this is a complex issue: people of color feel degraded, humiliated, angry, afraid, triggered; police feel unfairly blamed for one man's murder; people who focus on justice feel like a lifetime of non-violent opposition has done very little good, an now it's time to step up the pressure. I have opinions on all of that, but now I want to address only one side: that good police-community relations is really in everyone's best interest.
The police know this by and large, and they know it by experience. When they get along with their community, their life is easier, and everyone's on the same side when it comes to bringing someone to justice. When they are antagonistic with their community, they fall behind, and fight a losing battle. I'd even say the
vast majority of police know this, and know it so well you don't even have to prompt them or get them to admit it. It's just part of their job. It's integrated into their training. It's been
proven true.
So when someone comes along and stokes the flames of hatred, that person is clearly working against what they're trying to do. And if they're smart (the police, that is), they won't fall into that trap, the trap of hatred or blame. It just doesn't help them.
Now on our side it's a little trickier. We all need the police, but lots of us won't admit it. Yes we could replace them with a working system of dispute resolution, rendering them unnecessary, but we haven't done it yet, and far too many of us will call them at the drop of a hat, just because we're all living in fear and because it's possible. We tend to overuse them and trust them too much, but the fact is, we'd need them anyway, and there's no point pretending otherwise. So in this particular situation the best thing we need to do is start with
them, because they aren't going anywhere and will be either defending us or not, depending on the situation, the next time we need them.
I'm not so concerned about lawbreakers - really they are the police's problem, and the police have plenty of weapons to figure out who broke what store window and what can be done about that. I'm more concerned about people rushing to the defense of looters - who after all are stealing - and saying they have reason to be violently angry. I'd say, they have reason to be very angry, yes. But no one has reason to be violently anything, it's that simple.
Murderers are murderers, and should pay the price. Looters are stealers, same. We in the large "common people" class need to recognize that we appreciate having someone take care of this for us. Trying to do it ourselves would distract from other important things, like blogging, or wearing masks.
War against America
I think the times call for us to take our stand so in this post I will take mine. I will not go out into the street because 1) I am vulnerable, 2) I still have four kids at home, and 3) I have mixed feelings about messing up a black lives matter protest when I'm white. I'll explain.
First, everyone has a right to protest, and the vast majority of them have been peaceful, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of American people are very very angry. I'm very angry, so I know the temptation would be there to hurl a rock or two, but I wouldn't do it, and I don't want to see my friends do it either. For one thing the police are our friends, and the vast majority of police respect the need for people to expect fairness, patience and restraint in our relationships. I have come to know the police in my part of the mountains and I'm happy to say I trust them as decent people and so now I hate to see signs advocating violence against the police. That one was a murderer, yes. But that's different from lashing out at every store, every police car, every precinct office, etc. Ever live without police? We'll all need a whole lot more guns if we do.
Second, if you're black, this is an intense issue and you have every right to be triggered and get out there and speak up. I think the police and authorities should understand how you feel and give you a certain amount of leeway based on the fact that you have every right to be both angry
and afraid. But I am not so sure the police are going to give anyone any leeway at all. Trump has already proven his willingness to let tens of thousands die just out of carelessness, lack of restraint, ego gratification, whatever. He's not beyond putting his own army in harm's way, coronavirus or not, and he has no compunction about sending them out to kill whichever folks are still alive and vulnerable. We're all getting in harm's way here.
I feel like war against the people is his way of turning back on us, since it's become clear he won't win a fair election. He'll just kill anyone who disagrees with him and he'll start with anyone in the street. In this situation I feel like we are being drawn into a war that we can't win. We hate him. It's obvious that what he's doing is wrong and illegal, and immoral. We need to protest. But if we get out into the street he'll kill us.
In this situation we are being drawn into a war we can't win. Yes killing a man for no reason is wrong. Yes we protest against racial injustice which by the way is nothing new. Yes we must stand up for a better world and many police are on our side in that regard. NO we should not just lash out and break windows. People will die. Enough of us are dead already.
What I'm saying is that peaceful, online protest is the only way. Stand up for justice. But do it at home, online.
And then vote blue no matter who.
