Masking our commonalities

I am concerned about the impression that some folks have that if you are wearing a mask you must be a liberal.

Listen up kids and rational thinking adults. Here is the definition of stereotype: “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” So if you think in black/white, young/old, short/tall and think you know that person from only one trait you are sadly missing the entire person. Please look deeply past that COVID mask and you will find a living, breathing, caring, loving person who bleeds red — just like you — and wishes for happiness and health - just like you.

It is so easy to generalize and put people in boxes. I ask anyone who does this if they would like to be stereotyped like that. Oh, you are a girl, you can’t do math … oh, you are fat and lazy …, oh, guys are messy and unclean … liberals are all communists … and on and on.

I hope that we all can take a few minutes before judging others. You may discover that we all have so much in common and care about the same things.

Mary Naber

Spokane