I came to Ignacio in 1975 and it has been my home ever since. What I liked most about it, and still do, is the face-to-face community – hard working, unpretentious, caring, welcoming, faithful. Above all, it was a place where people knew that their rights and freedoms included the rights and freedoms of their fellow humans.
When I see my good Liberty Coalition neighbors waving their in-your-face “Freedom” signs and screaming in support of their sacred right to not wear masks when they shop next to their older, frailer neighbors, I am sorely tempted to ask them: So when are you going to scream against traffic laws? Seat belts? Voter registration?
As a social species, we share both rights and obligations, fun and chores. The ants and bees know it. The tree shrews know it. Magpies and blue-jays know it.
When you politicize masks in the midst of this plague, you politicize compassion, empathy, caring, love. Is this really all that complicated?
Tom GivónIgnacio
