Letter to the Protestors

I'm writing to the protesters. You know, the ones that want to be sure their rights are being respected.

Nobody's taking anything away from you. Governors of your states have directed you to stay home.
They haven't assigned you ball-and-chains. You can ignore them all you want.

Thing is, the virus isn't going to ignore you, either. It's all around us. And you're going to get sick. Some of you don't even know you have it, or are ripe to spread it.

Do what you want. Just don't make me sick on the way. I'm not in a good place. If I get sick, I could be gone in just a few days. Let that be up to me. I have just as much right to protect myself as you have to, in a strange expression of your rights, put yourself at risk.

We all know you have the right to assemble. So assemble. Go ahead. Make fools of yourselves. You're doing a great job of it. You have an example in the White House who's just as crazy, if not more crazy, than you are. And he's making a terrific fool of himself. Follow the pied piper. Help yourself.

I'm not sure who you're listening to. It might be Fox News. They have plenty of nonsense, plenty of diversions, plenty of alternative facts.

I'm noticing that, at least in the pictures that have been released, a single kind of person is emerging within your midst: Middle-aged and male, carrying flags of protest, some with Confederate flags, some with rebellious beards. Yes, if you were wondering, you are terrifying.

But not so much so that you can't be ignored. Ridiculed. Mocked. Which plenty of people are doing.

But no, your libertarian blood is boiling. Don't Tread On Me flags proliferate. This isn't taxation without representation, though. This is an emergency.

You could go to church, too, as some of you are doing. Same result: You're going to get sick. You can rationalize it all you want, but God won't stop this, either.

It probably feels good to get out and see each other again, the way it's going to feel when the rest of us manage to see the people we care about now. Again, I don't begrudge you that. Just stay to yourselves.

But you have to push the edge of the envelope, don't you? Wisconsin Republicans (I assume you're Republican, if you're anything remotely resembling the mainstream, Nazi flags notwithstanding) are suing the Democratic governor for extending the Safe At Home guidelines to May 26, the day after Memorial Day, even after relaxing some of the stricter requirements. Why, you can even play golf now, but you can't go to the bathroom in the clubhouse because it won't be open.

I'm quite sure they'll cloak their concerns in terms of the economy, for which they think all should be sacrificed (Including schoolchildren, says Dr. Oz, apparently an authority on such things; 2-3% is apparently acceptable collateral damage for re-opening the schools. Just tell me how to diet, Doc. That's what you're good at.) Thing is, if there's nobody out there to buy things because they're sick or dead or scared to be either, what good will it do to try extraordinary measures like ordering the governor to stand down? Would someone please answer that question? Is it just going to make them feel better, even if actually feeling better is out of their control?

Why do Republicans do so much to deny leadership? Is it because they don't know how to do it? Or because someone else is doing it?

They've already tried to keep people from voting by standing in the way of doing it by mail or delaying it so the virus passes. It didn't work; they got buried in the race they needed to win. Is it just that they want to gum up the works because they feel helpless otherwise? Wouldn't telling people to stay the hell home be wiser?

So as a result, virus infections in Green Bay and Milwaukee, where people had to stand in line in much greater numbers because they understandably couldn't get as many volunteers, are now up. Congratulations: There, you've succeeded. The Speaker of the Assembly, a Republican, got himself dressed up in protective clothing and declared everything safe to vote. People wore masks and gloves. It didn't matter. And don't tell me the stats are wrong. You're either lying or denying reality, the difference of which is negligible.

I know you're anxious to get rolling again. So am I. But without a vaccine and/or sufficient testing, the virus controls. Nothing you can do or say gets in the way of that: No protest, no lawsuit. Nothing. It's science, which you apparently don't believe in. But science wins. It always does.

A compatriot of mine on the NEA Executive Committee had a magnet in her office that said, "You Can't Fix Stupid." I keep coming back to that. I know I'm writing this in vain. But sometimes you just have to do it to let people know that there's someone else who's trying to keep his head on straight. While I live, which is something you're trying hard to take from me.

Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark