Daily Times (Primos, PA)

Mandatory pants-wearing is violating my rights!

- By Jeff Edelstein jedelstein@21st-centurymed­ia.com @JeffEdelst­ein on Twitter Jeff Edelstein Columnist Jeff Edelstein is a columnist for The Trentonian. He can be reached at jedelstein@ trentonian.com, facebook. com/jeffreyede­lstein and @ jeffedelst­ein on

I have had it with my constituti­onal rights being violated. Enough is enough. I can’t take it anymore. As a result, from this day forward, I refuse to let the government dictate what I can and cannot do. The result?

From this day forth, I refuse to wear a cloth covering over my ... genitals.

That’s right. I’m not going to let any government tell me what I can and can’t do with my own personal body! Besides, we all know this is a big Soros/Gates plot to keep us all covered up and embarrasse­d of our God-given bits and pieces! I refuse to be a sheeple! Cloth coverings over genitals don’t work! Plus, it’s uncomforta­ble. It’s hard to get any air circulatin­g down there. I’m an American, dammit, and no one can tell me what to do. Besides, there’s plenty of studies that prove wearing a cloth covering over our genitals is kindasorta harmful to our health.

Be free, America! Rip off your cloth coverings over your genitals! Ahem.

Of course, the above is ridiculous, juvenile, silly, and stupid.

It’s also a wonderful counterpoi­nt to the diminishin­g number of people who still insist on either A) not wearing a mask or B) complainin­g very loudly about it. Bottom line? Your constituti­onal rights are not being violated when the government tells you to mask up. Courts have decided this numerous times, dating back to a 1905 United States Supreme Court decision (Jacobson v. Massachuse­tts) in which the court ruled this dude Jacobson - who would’ve been a hoot on

Facebook - had to get a smallpox vaccinatio­n. You know, because of public health and whatnot.

Today? No one wants to stick a needle in your arm (yet). All the government - and the vast majority of Americans - are asking for is that if you can’t socially distance, you wear a mask. Pretty simple. Pretty straightfo­rward. Pretty easy.

Of course, the fact I’m still writing about this demonstrat­es not everyone is doing the whole mask thing. (Also, wearing a mask and not covering your nose doesn’t work. It would be like covering my ass but leaving my front uncovered, splashing my frank and beans all over the joint.)

Do masks help combat the spread of coronaviru­s? Almost certainly. Study after study after study demonstrat­es that. Are there studies that go against the prevailing wisdom? There are. A lot fewer, for sure, but they exist.

So let’s be fair, let’s give the benefit of the doubt, let’s say we’re not sure if masks work. Let’s say we’re not sure if they are effective.

Well - call me crazy - but doesn’t it make a bit more sense to err on the side of caution during a global pandemic that has already killed nearly 600,000 humans? What’s worse: Wearing a mask while shopping in Walmart even though it might not do anything, or accidental­ly killing someone in Walmart because you’re an asymptomat­ic carrier and as it turns out - ta-da! - masks work?

At this point in the pandemic, if you insist on not wearing a mask to prove a point, you’re no better than if I walked into Target without pants. You’re foolish, selfish, and silly.

And if you’re the type to continue to rail against masks in an effort to draw support to your constituti­onal cause - slippery slope! What will the government do next?! - you’re not only foolish, selfish, and silly, you’re maybe even a little … well, “evil” is strong, but it’s ticking over into that neighborho­od.

To be clear, I loathe wearing a mask. It’s uncomforta­ble, and not being able to read another human’s facial expression­s is not cool. But uh … so what. It’s a small price to pay for the possibilit­y of controllin­g this disease, which would in turn allow us to retain some sort of normalcy until such time there’s a vaccine or effective and widely available treatment.

I mean, even President Trump - who some people tell me, very good people, is a foolish, selfish, silly, and ticking toward evil man - threw one on the other day. See? Everybody’s doing it!

So mask up, folks. It’s for the greater good. Same with me wearing pants, even though I can’t accidental­ly kill you by shopping nekkid.

 ?? ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? President Donald Trump wears a face mask as he walks down a hallway during a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., on July 11.
ASSOCIATED PRESS President Donald Trump wears a face mask as he walks down a hallway during a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., on July 11.
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