by: JEFF GAUGER
A man allegedly shot and killed a Family Dollar security guard in Flint, Mich., 20 minutes after the guard insisted his mom wear a mask.
Another man, when told by a Dollar Tree clerk in Holly, Mich., to wear a mask, approached her and wiped his nose on her shirt.
Yet another man visited a San Diego grocery store with a face covering – a white hood like those worn by the Ku Klux Klan.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, returned to work this week in the U.S. Capitol – without a mask. He didn’t need one, he said, because he had coronavirus immunity.
Our frustration is real. And understandable.
But what the hell?
We all have a constitutional right to carry guns, although I wish the right weren’t slathered about with threatening abandon.
We do not, not, not, not have a right to kill each other over masks. Wipe our snot on others. Wear symbols of hatred. Ignore our duty of care to others.
Make your political statement some other way. And keep your damned snot – and breath – to yourself.
Jeff Gauger is a former executive editor of The Shreveport Times who now teaches journalism at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Send comments, anecdotes, suggestions and brickbats to jeff.gauger08@ gmail.com.
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE May 8 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.