Mask Warriors

When Shakespeare wrote “we are but warriors for the working day” he wasn’t thinking of the modern-day customer service industry, but he might have well as been.

Customer service, as it is called, is just as much about trying to monitor behavior as it is about providing an item.

Take, for instance, the current effort of some reasonable people in government and in business to try to prevent the spread of a highly contagious and rather debilitating virus by requiring that people wear masks in a crowded environment.

It is a constant battle in stores and places that require mask mandates to remind people to put on the mask, and request that “could you please do better with your mask” so that the mask covers both the mouth and the nose. I would hazard a guess that in the store store I work at, which has clear “mask require in the store” signs posted on the door and in the store, about ten percent of the people enter the store without a mask and without an intent of ever wearing one.

The store tries to carry free medical (blue) masks for people who need one, but I’m mystified by the people who – two years into a pandemic – have chosen not to have a mask of their own. At the same time, I shouldn’t be mystified, because customers have said things like “down south” (in a more conservative county) “we don’t wear masks”

It’s not just about whether or not someone has their own mask after all this time. People are showing a compete disregard of the safely of others. If you expect a store to give you a mask, and you don’t have your own you’re saying that is the store, not you, that is incumbent to provide for the safety of others. If you have your mask on half way (or keep taking it off in the store) you’re intentionally ignoring public safety. (I don’t mind exceptions to the rule, like people who take their mask down to be heard).

At this point in the pandemic it should be obvious that even in places that don’t require a mask you should wear one, and in a place that says that masks are required there you should wear one.