His Face Is Naked
Tim Barrus: New York Times
I live in Appalachia. If Trump doesn’t wear a mask, my neighbors do not have to wear a mask. “No One Can Make Us.” There is no disease expert to advise us on ignorance. There is no disease expert to advice us on fear. There is no disease expert to advice us on racism. There is no disease expert to advise us on disease. What we have, what people listen to, is the hatred that comes from the President of the United States.
Not wearing a mask is to symbolize his hatred of people he refuses to respect. That would begin with African-Americans. That would begin with Latinos. That would begin with the poor. That would begin with anyone and everyone who does not pay homage to his power to control America. Mask or no mask. His face is naked.
The mask is about control. In Appalachia, people are too depressed to riot against a system that has kept them powerless for over two hundred years. We talk about addiction. We steadfastly refuse to speak about powerlessness.
What we can control is to wear the mask or not wear the mask.
I went downtown yesterday. There were crowds of people on the street. The only person I saw wearing a mask was me. We did not have deaths outside the context of the nursing home, and there are many of them. Living in any of them was a death sentence.
But today, there are now cases of covid infection on the part of people who have never been inside a nursing home or assisted living in their life. Locals drove to the riots. Violence tourism. No one wore a mask.