Anti-mask lawsuit not about freedom
I grew up in a religion devoid of symbolism. Even wearing a cross necklace was considered gauche. I think these days, conservatives call activities like that — overt displays of godliness — “virtue signaling,” though at the time, we called it “idolatry.” Instead of bragging about our piety, we branded ourselves with our good works — which we didn’t trumpet, but God knew.
For all of that religion’s exclusivity and misogyny (women had no place outside of Sunday school classrooms, and then only classrooms for small children), I learned some beautiful lessons, among them (but not limited to) the notion that Christians are here to serve, and that God is everywhere.
So I find troublesome a recent Supreme Court decision. Late the night before Thanksgiving, the court decided 5-4 (with Chief Justice John Roberts the dissenting conservative) that faith groups did not have to observe attendance restrictions placed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
In language lofty and loud, SCOTUS said restrictions on how many people could assemble for a religious service run counter to people’s ability to practice their religion. Ironically, about the same time Pope Francis weighed in when he wrote in the New York Times that protesting against pandemic restrictions reveals just how small are our hearts. The Supreme Court does not answer to the Pope, nor does the Pope answer to the Court, but you have to ask yourself two things:
How is it service to worship in a crowd? And: Does God live in a building?
That’s a pretty small God.
And that’s not service. This feels like a zombie movie, where someone in the group ignorantly leaves the gate open and exposes the rest of us to mayhem. Why? Because freedom. Americans, as Yale’s Nicholas A. Christakis writes in his incredible book, “Apollo’s Arrow: The Power and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus On the Way We Live,” have put on blindfolds when we should put on masks.
In Connecticut last week, we passed the sad mark of 5,000 state residents who’ve died from COVID-19. We’ve lost teachers, grandfathers, delivery workers and doctors. Most of them
died alone out of the fear that a last hug or kiss from a grieving family member could mean spreading the virus. Colleges and universities are limping toward the end of their semesters. Hospitals are nearing capacity, and a group of doctors has asked Gov. Ned Lamont to consider closing businesses such as gyms and restaurants. Hartford City Council members Wildaliz Bermudez and Josh Michtom, both members of Working Families Party, have called on the governor to impose a monthlong statewide shutdown. They suggest there are ways to stay afloat economically during the shutdown. As they said in their announcement, an economy can be rebuilt, but it’s rough business raising the dead.
Against that backdrop, let’s pause to look at a
group that calls itself CT Freedom Alliance, which is pushing a ridiculous lawsuit to lift mask-wearing restrictions in schools, thereby leaving the door wide open for zombies. Why? Because freedom. A jaunt through the group’s suit reveals that the parents from Manchester, Marlborough, and elsewhere believe masks don’t prevent the spread of COVID-19, and in fact, that wearing them is “damaging to the children’s health, safety and emotional well-being.”
Despite massive scientific evidence that masks can effectively block the droplets that contain the virus, the parents managed to find two sciencedenying lawyers who also perform duties as state representatives on the side. Republican Representatives Doug Dubitsky and Craig Fishbein are leading the charge because — again — freedom. And zombies. One of their arguments is concern that the state will one day require school children to wear spacesuits and breathe bottled oxygen. Let the representatives’ involvement in this nonsense be written in stone so that we can shame them generations from now.
In addition to this waste-of- a-lawsuit, we’ve witnessed parades where mouth-breathing antimaskers picketed the governor with signs that decry, again, a loss of freedom. One organizer, by way of explanation, told a newspaper that life is dangerous and “none of us get out alive” anyway, so…
I’m not sure any of us plan to live forever, but living to Christmas would be nice, or to spring graduation, or all the way to next summer when we can actually have warm weather and beach days lived outside the specter of the virus. People who believe science applaud people such as Georgia’s Gabriel Sterling, a Republican state election official who recently took to the microphone to angrily chastise President Donald Trump leading the headlong charge to preventable deaths.
A vaccine is on its way, but we need to get our minds around the fact that it won’t arrive soon enough for some of us. I’m willing to wait my turn, but perhaps on that great day, the anti-maskers, science-deniers, and zealots anxious to pack the pews won’t mind moving to the back of the line. After all, none of us — except maybe zombies — will get out alive.