In Need of a Church of the Covid Informed

 This is just bananas, but another county in NY State banned masks. 

From this article, 

"Nassau lawmakers on Monday approved a bill making it a misdemeanor--punishable by up to $1,000 and/or a year in jail--for anyone wearing a mask or any facial covering to hide their identity while in public places. The measure exempts people who wear masks for health, safety, 'religious or cultural purposes, or for the peaceful celebration of a holiday or similar religious or cultural event for which masks or facial coverings are customarily worn.'" 

That's a lot of words to ensure that Hallowe'en is safe. 

This wording suggests that people will be arrested if their intention is to hide their face, which is difficult to prove. But because police are given the right to hand out the fines and/or jail time, then I have little faith how much your actual intentions matter and fear that race and religious identifiers will determine who gets stopped for daring to wear an N95. 

An explanation from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman:

"Unless someone has a medical condition or a religious imperative, people should not be allowed to cover their face in a manner that hides their identity when in public."

This makes it seem that people will need to carry documentation to prove they need their mask for health reasons, but that leaves out anyone who's perfectly healthy but lives with someone immunocompromised, and anyone perfectly healthy who DOESN'T WANT TO CATCH A BRAIN-INVASIVE VIRUS!!!

Back to the article:

"All 12 Republicans voted yes, and all 7 Democrats abstained from the vote. Democrats unsuccessfully tried to table the bill, asking Republicans for more time to amend it."

Okay, so if the Dems clearly didn't agree with the wording of the current bill, then the right action is to vote NO instead of abstaining. Abstaining always feels cowardly, and really should only happen if there's a marked and transparent conflict of interest. Their conflict of interest is that they might upset the wrong people. 

Some supporters of the bill argued that it will stop crime if we stop face masks, but that completely ignores the reality that sunglasses obscure a person's identity better than an N95. It's so curious that lawmakers never try to ban sunglasses in public for the safety of their citizens. 

Many who opposed to the ban argued that they expect this new law to increase crimes of harassment or even violence against people in masks, and it will infringe on privacy laws for people with health concerns. The police commissioner assured the crowd that, 

"officers would know the difference between someone wearing a mask for criminal reasons and for medical or religious purposes. 'We are not going to just arrest someone for wearing a mask. We are going to go up to the person and talk to them.'" 

Maybe.

But even if this is a gentler, kinder, and more reasonable police force than we've seen elsewhere, it opens up anyone in a mask to scrutiny, to being talked to by the police, to being interrupted in their daily tasks, and that's bullshit!! And, as suggested above, it leaves anyone in a mask open to scrutiny by the rest of the population as well. 

AND, so far, during the discussion on the vote, Dr. Lucky Tran provides a video and explains, "legislators cut off someone speaking against the mask ban, and security officers are intimidating people wearing masks." And another video shows, "One of the advocates opposing the Nassau County mask ban was violently arrested by the cops at the meeting, as shown on this News 12 segment. Cops are already disproportionately targeting higher risk people wearing a mask before the mask ban is even signed into law."

So this will go well, I'm sure. 

I've said before that we need to start an official Covid-informed religion, and it seems more and more to be necessary in order to be allowed to protect ourselves from what really feels like a flippin' cull. 

ETA: Dr. Mike Hoerger wrote an excellent letter that can be used as a template to verify the need to mask, and he includes becoming an ordained minister just in case, and encourages us to wear masks in a celebratory manner! (also at this link --> pmc19.com/exemption.pdf)

ETA: relevant Plague Poem:

My friend the librarian 

who always quotes 

Heine’s famous lines: 

“Wherever they burn books 

they will also, in the end, 

burn human beings,” 

this morning sent me 

the following addendum: 

“And wherever they ban masks 

they will also, in the end, 

ban human beings.”