Bratty Behavior Redux

 Well, it's been a crazy few weeks, hasn't it?  Since my last post everything has changed and yet, nothing has.  I achieved full vaccination status April 7.  Since then I ventured into a grocery store in person (with a mask) to buy a chicken. I went to the plant nursery (with a mask), and live church services started (masked) and last night was choir practice (masks & 6 feet apart).  I didn't wear my mask at the dog park but I had it in my pocket just in case I ran into a crowd during my morning hike.  I was careful to stay away from people who weren't in my pod. 

And yet,  there are more arguments about masks than ever. Now the anti-mask people have morphed into the anti-vax people. Private businesses are being challenged with bad behavior once again because they are following state requirements.  There is still a hole in the logic of the anti-maskers. How many times do we have to explain to them that  private businesses (including but not limited to Trader Joe's, Costco, Kroger's, H.E.B., Dollar, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc) have the right to refuse service to anyone. Isn't that what the anti-mask people keep telling us? Don't tread on me? You can't tell me what to do? I have my rights?  Well, private businesses don't have to let you through the door because, like you, they have rights, too. You don't have the right to go into any store or restaurant you want without a mask if that business requires a mask even if you are vaccinated, which by the way, you don't have to prove because that would be a violation of your privacy rights. 

We have non-newsman Tucker Carlson using his television show to spew misinformation and encourage people to indulge in bad behavior by telling them to "confront people" who still wear masks and tell them to take them off. A junior staffer to congresswoman Greene rudely orders a senior member of the House to remove his mask.  I know Carlson is looking for ratings ( ratings translates to revenue). I'm not sure what the staffer was looking for when he accosted a senior congress member coming off the House floor.

I was infuriated by the behavior of D list "celebrity" Rick Schroder who pilloried a Costco employee on Youtube because he was enforcing Costco's policy of no mask, no entry in California. Schroder then had the nerve to post a non-apology to the employee.  If he was a real, responsible grown up he would have gone back to the store and apologized in person.  No, actually if he was a responsible grown up he wouldn't have done it in the first place. 

I thought that with evidence that vaccinations are bringing safety to us and how fortunate we are to live in a country where everyone can get vaccinated Americans would be getting vaccinated and counting their blessings. India, Brazil and most of the rest of the world are not as fortunate as we are. 

And yet, Americans are behaving like spoiled toddlers once more.  They "don't wanna" wear masks and they "don't wanna" get the shot.   And the world, a world which is dying to get vaccinated, is watching.