** Please note, the following post contains explicit language.
Dear Karen,
I am writing to you to apologize. This whole COVID-19 thing is a bitch, huh? The masks, the gloves, the hand sanitizer, the fight for Clorox wipes, the rising cost of food items… it’s enough to make you pull your hair out and scream at people to suck it up and get back to business as usual… right? It is unfathomable that to get your hair cut and colored, you have to have your temperature taken and a mask must be securely fastened to your face. Where is your right to say, “Screw this! I am NOT wearing a mask to my dental appointment.”? All great questions. You are, after all, an independent woman with rights as an American citizen. You do not appreciate being painted as an angry white woman (imagine the nerve). Girlfriend, I getcha. This shit sucks. People die of other diseases all the time and we don’t shut down our country… so everyone just needs to pull it together!
And that’s where I say, you are wrong, Karen. Yes, this whole thing sucks. It feels like we are living something out of a science fiction horror novel. It sucks that life as usual has paused. But, guess what? It will not get better until this whole thing gets better; until cases are down and deaths aren’t, well, deaths. I know masks seem stupid… but if you could protect one vulnerable person, why wouldn’t you? Do not call yourself pro-life when you proclaim that masks inhibit your freedoms and that this whole thing is fake… are you willing to bet YOUR life on that? If so, girlfriend, you are not pro-life. That is not respecting the sanctity of one’s life.
When you throw out numbers… please do so carefully. I know that lots of people die of the flu every year and that those deaths don’t shut down economies! Trust me, I KNOW. Those deaths are tragedies too… perhaps if we wore masks (like other countries) around flu season, we wouldn’t have so many deaths to be using in your argument to justify why this whole Corona beer thing is crap…
If you don’t trust scientists, then fine. That’s on you, Karen. As such please don’t seek the aid of anyone in the medical field, or send your kids to school (science class be damned!), or get vaccinated. If you don’t trust other countries and the measures they are taking to reduce and contain COVID-19, then please don’t ever leave American soil. You are not wanted or welcome in countries that are doing the best they can to save their people.
Did you know that other countries and NOW the US have had to start using freezer trucks to store bodies because the morgues are full up? Ain’t that some shit? I am sorry that your regularly scheduled programming has been interrupted. I am sorry that you feel the way you do, I truly am. It must be terrible to feel that way.
I am not sorry enough though. I will continue to wear my mask in public and offend your sensibilities. I will continue to keep my daughter at home and away from crowds. I will do whatever needs to be done to help keep the numbers down, to protect my daughter, to protect my at-risk father, to protect my husband… whatever is asked of me, I will do. As a person who gets claustrophobic, I will wear my damn mask. I will sanitize my house often (though that’s not new- I am a bit OCD and my house is always properly sanitized and cleaned). I will get to Costco first thing in the morning to try and get Clorox wipes. I will do my part to support nurses and doctors on the front lines (shout out to Kate and Alisa- you ladies are heroes). I will do ANYTHING to not have to ever see another person die on a ventilator whether it be COVID-19, the flu, or any other virus or disease or WHATEVER. If we could stop cancer by wearing a mask, wouldn’t we? I mean, come on… WOULDN’T WE? Why is this virus so hard to take seriously? Are you that untrusting of your country? The world? Of your friends and family? For that then, I am truly sorry for you.
Though you may not care if I die from COVID-19, I really hope you don’t. I want you to see what your disbelief has impacted. And I want you to live with it.
Regards,
Kendall
The Salty Exchange 