June Renew: Day Seventeen
There Was a Cover-Up
There’s a lot of people wearing masks around Manhattan these days. In June 2024. I don’t get it. I never got it. I’ve written about it many times here. And yet it’s still out there. Why, just yesterday when I was looking at the Uber app, the Uber One promo showed a drawing of two people all masked up. Don’t believe me? Look.
It’s hard to believe this was the reality for as long as it was. People went absolutely bananas over these facecloths, pretending like it was science to cover your perfectly healthy face for days on end. If you were performing surgery daily, I can understand putting one on while you’re doing your duty. But unless you truly are immunocompromised, I’d say it’s time to pull the plug on the pandemic paranoia. Even Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams, two people who kept children masked until Summer 2022, now say they want New Yorkers to de-mask on the subways, in an effort to reduce crime.
There’s no accountability. No admission that maybe they were wrong this whole time. Just another instance of “do what I say,” flexing their militarized might with absolutely no humility in hindsight. And although I never covered up my feelings, I’m not going to let them slap a new standard on us while pretending the past didn’t happen.
My Actual Rights
Back in November 2021, I went to vote early for the NYC mayoral election. I had never done early voting before, and I did so for no other reason than to try something different. As I walked in the building only a few blocks away, I was blocked by one of the voting minders, who wouldn’t let me into the back room to vote without putting a mask on first.
“Do you have a mask?” he asked me.
“Yes,” I said, not lying, “But I feel fine and don’t want to wear it.”
He hit me with the appeal to emotion, telling me these are the rules and that we should be respectful. I countered with, “Where in the law does it say I must have a face covering to vote?” He couldn’t answer, but kept pressing me about the “respect” thing.
“If you could just put your mask on, I’ll let you go vote. Thanks,” he finished with what I think was a smile underneath a KN-95. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my ‘face covering’ I got on Etsy, which was nothing more than a sheer flowery face covering to give the illusion I was playing along. I didn’t break eye contact with him as I put it on, smiling big when I was done so he could see how performative it all was. “Now I’m safe,” I said, and he stepped aside to let me go vote.
When I was all done, having them not check my ID and chin-strapping it while behind the big white folder, I walked out, mask still down, zooming past the mealy guy who gave me a hard time. But before I could walk out the door, another election minder who was sitting in a nearby chair called out to me, “You really don’t like wearing masks, do you?” I didn’t feel anything malicious behind his words, so I smiled big and said, “Well, I gotta nice smile.” He laughed and said I sure did, and that was the end of it.
I walked out not feeling bad about my little spat, because during that time, I was going to do anything I could to let the world know how stupid I thought this mandate was. I hadn’t been in a pandemic mindset since June 2020, and I wasn’t going to allow the rest of the world to wrap itself in anxiety over something we now know could have very well been a bioweapon. I’m all for safety, I can’t be on board with government-issued overprotection.
It Was All a Facade
I get it. I have absolutely no control over what another person chooses to put on or not. Heck, even here in NYC you can legally walk around topless if you want. Not my body, not my choice. Best I can do is roll my eyes at the hardcore “maskers,” yet another word that’s entered our lexicon thanks to the feckless and fickle leadership that’s clothed so constrictingly in the Empire State.
One of the main talking points that’s come out of this has been our preparation for the “next pandemic.” I submit we’ll never get there again. There won’t be one ever again. Not in this lifetime, anyway. They pulled out all the stops. They mandated all they needed to mandate. But at this point, I don’t think this thread that began in pandemic times will ever really go away. There’s always going to be people who cannot be convinced that we were sold lies, and that all the mandates and enforcement were an exercise in power.
I’m not here to argue. I’m here to remember. To know what was done and to never let it happen again. Not under my watch. Not as long as I’m breathing free. Here’s hoping the veil fully lifts on all of it soon.
