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Dana Rushing
Editor’s Note: The following Op-Ed is in response to the Llano County GOP’s rebuke of Gov. Greg Abbott over his executive order regarding wearing masks in public (For story, see Page 3).
The Texas Democratic Party’s core values address the belief in equal opportunity, fairness, freedom, family, community, and a responsibility to ourselves and each other. We are a party for and by the people. Our strongest belief is that people come first.
The Governor of the State of Texas recently made masks mandatory in public, along with other measures to ensure our citizens’ safety.
If anything, there should have been a mandate months ago. The state opened too early, and COVID-19 ran rampant throughout our state, making our state one of the worst for the country’s number of cases and deaths. Our hospitals are full, and people
Our hospitals are full, and people are dying every day from the virus. Many people felt that wearing masks and limiting gatherings in public was against their rights as citizens of the United States.
After all, they reasoned, they should have the freedom to do as they please. We can all now see the disaster of such behavior.
Theories that COVID-19 is nothing worse than the flu has been posted on various social media pages.
There have been posts on Facebook from “healthcare workers” concerning the possibility that oxygen levels are reduced when wearing a mask, resulting in death.
I started my 50-year career in healthcare as an aide in a psychiatric hospital. Through hard work, I earned three degrees while working up the ladder and retired four years ago after running a rehabilitation hospital and many outpatient physical therapy clinics.
I never knew one person who became weak or died from wearing a mask. This kind of false information, distributed freely throughout social media, needs to cease.
Setting politics and conspiracy theories aside, science has revealed that wearing masks will prevent the spread of the deadly virus COVID-19.
Science has also confirmed that COVID-19 is much more virulent and dangerous than the flu. I know six individuals who have had COVID-19, and one person died from it.
When significant numbers of people refuse to wear a mask and insist on gathering in large groups, and not social distancing, COVID-19 will continue to spread. Your freedom to not wear a mask infringes on my right not to be exposed to the virus that you may unknowingly spread. It’s my constitutional right to be free from harm.
If everyone complies with wearing a mask, together, we can help stop the spread of COVID-19. Not only will lives be saved, but our economy can begin to recover. Isn’t this what all of us want?
As Winston Churchill once said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing after trying everything else.”
Let’s do the right thing and take care of ourselves and each other.
Dana Rushing is a former Llano County Democratic Party Chair, current vice president of the Highland Lakes Democratic Women and was recently elected the Senate District 24 Committeewoman to the State Democratic Executive Committee.
