Recollection

Please remember that at this moment, July 3rd, 2020, most of the poorest members of our society–among whom are numbered many millions of persons of color, particularly in the larger cities–continue to be prevented by our sundry State governments from working.  In many places, like Democrat hot spots like Oregon and California, they cannot work at all in my understanding.

Virtually everywhere else, the restrictions being placed on the places they may work–most of them being in face to face sorts of jobs which collectively might be termed the service industry–make them underemployed.  Less people are needed.  Less work is done.  Many businesses of course have closed permanently, or chosen not to reopen yet even if allowed to.

Servers are making very little money.  Restaurants by the millions are hanging on by a thread.

And to state the obvious, masks are not helping us get back to normal faster.  They accelerate nothing, popular misconceptions to the contrary notwithstanding.  In probably 95% of the cases they are worn, they literally do nothing, because the person wearing them is not infected, nor is anyone in their environment.

Masks make sense for people at risk.  And this being a free country where the default assumption is that people are capable of looking after their own welfare, those people should take care not to get sick.

But the fastest path to normal is for all healthy young people to stop being terrified of this squirrrel and get on with their lives, including by finally popping their cherry and joining all the rest of us who have already had this.

If Black Lives Matter to you, then your goal needs to get all of them back to work as soon as possible.  When people haven’t worked for three months, tearing down century old statues might be a useful distraction, but it is very certainly not a useful help.