I see the John Birch Society and others — those wonderful folks that brought us Joe McCarthy and ended careers of those they disagreed with with blacklists — seem to equate mandating masks in public with a egregious trampling of their rights. I hate to inform them, but society has a right to protect itself from selfish, ignorant, arrogant outliers that threaten public health in a clear ongoing pandemic.

I want businesses to open and stay open and while wearing a mask is certainly uncomfortable and inconvenient, not being able to open your store or have a job because it put people in the hospital or morgue goes well beyond that. We do not have the right to ignore speed limits or stop signs, we have the responsibility to each other to obey them to protect each other from tragic accidents.

We have seen in Florida, Georgia, Texas and the beaches of California that this disease isn’t going away by pretending it isn’t a serious threat that needs leadership acting to protect us, not ignoring the problem to appease voters that want to wish the problem away. There is a word for absolute freedom to do whatever you wish regardless of how it impacts others, it is called anarchy and it ultimately isn’t much freedom at all.

Greg Ellison

Colbert