Masks: find a bigger, better fight

At Arlington National Cemetery, the green expanse and simple white markers denote the final resting place for thousands of Americans who, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “gave the last, full measure of devotion” to their country.

One of the significant incidents which sparked the American Revolution took place on March 5, 1770, when five protesters were shot and killed by British soldiers.

In the fall of 1831, Nat Turner was hanged for leading a revolt to free his fellow slaves. He was branded a terrorist, but the greater terror was perpetuated by those who bought and sold their fellow human beings like cattle.

Heather Heyer wasn’t a soldier, but she died in service to her country on the streets of Charlottesville, Va., in the summer of 2017.

Heyer is just one of countless Americans who have died fighting for equality and justice. The list, from Elijah Lovejoy to Medgar Evers, is too long to publish.

In light of the innumerable sacrifices made by so many Americans throughout our history, refusing to wear a mask during a global pandemic is a small, weird hill to die on.

It may be the easiest thing you’ll ever be asked to do for this country.

After months of ignoring the threat, then failing to formulate a national plan, the current administration has chosen instead to deflect, scapegoat, dismiss and spread confusion, giving rise to such wacky conspiracies as the outbreak being a “plandemic” to erode your civil rights.

As a result, 4 percent of the world’s population owns 25 percent of its COVID-19 cases.

The disease has not abated here as it has throughout much of Europe, South Korea or even China, where it originated. Rather, a slow burn has become an inferno in some parts of the country, where COVID patients are filling up morgues and intensive care units, and where first responders are again running out of personal protective equipment.

During the flu pandemic of 1918, wearing a mask was cast as a patriotic thing to do, and those who balked were derided as “slackers.” Some cities imposed fines, and even made arrests for open-mouthed sneezers. (Frankly, that’s something that ought to be brought back, even when this outbreak ends.)

Edward Luce, the British-born U.S. national editor of the Financial Times, argues that in addition to the virus, America and the UK also suffer from “extravagant exceptionalism,” the kind of confidence-on-steroids that ignores common sense and blows past the “bridge out ahead” sign.

Some of the same folks who descended upon the statehouse demanding that businesses reopen, won’t commit to a simple act of wearing a mask, which could help those businesses stay open.

You have to wonder if they would have told FDR where to get off when he ordered blackout drills during World War II.

A society that can’t bear to be inconvenienced even if it might help someone else is one that is susceptible to grabbing onto anything that will provide a loophole for selfish behavior.

No one likes wearing masks. They’re hot and bothersome.

So what?

Every day has become Groundhog Day because we’ve chosen magical thinking and wind-sock politics, over perseverance and science.