Reckless with ‘freedom’

I offer a koan, a paradoxical anecdote: picture these two experiences in a month’s time and try to find a way to bridge the rift.

I’m at Macy’s in Spokane, making a purchase. A couple comes up to the counter not wearing masks as was requested and posted on Macy’s doors. I say, “Sir, would you please put a mask on. My brother-in-law has severe covid and may not make it. It’s real.”

“Lady, I just heard on Fox News that masks don’t work,” says the man. “It’s my freedom not to wear a mask and I got a gun.”

A week later a social worker in full PPE at Deaconess is holding a phone 18” from Jerry’s ear who is heavily sedated and intubated. We hope he hears our words at some level of brain function. Ten of us are saying tearful goodbyes because we can’t be with him when he dies. We will end his life support when the call is over.

Three days have passed since Jerry’s death and I’m angry, not just grieving. “It has to stop,” says Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system manager about President Trump’s falsehoods. “Someone is going to get killed.” Whether it’s elections or COVID safety, someone has been killed by Trump’s lies. As of today, 247,000 Americans have died of COVID. Is the metric of freedom recklessness with other’s lives?

Sarah Conover

Spokane