As I mentioned yesterday, our county health center passed a controversial mask mandate. The director of the county health center is a former student of Mrs. Hillbilly Mom!
It was back when I taught the At-Risk classes. Students were placed (with parent approval) in the 50-minute per day class (limit of 10 students) if they were considered likely to drop out before graduation. Maybe it was because nobody in their family had ever graduated. Or maybe they were just disorganized and didn't turn in homework. Perhaps an attendance problem. I "taught" them responsibility, self-respect, and how to deal with the world, heh, heh. My philosophy might be summed up with the quote I had on the wall of my classroom:
"I don't know what my future holds, but I know who holds my future."
Anyhoo... Director has done quite well for herself. She's an RN with a BSN, overseeing a government agency. She had no vote in the controversial mask mandate. That was the four-person board of commissioners. But she signed the controversial mask mandate, along with the board chairman.
As I mentioned yesterday, there was quite a flap about this mask mandate. On a public Facebook page last week appeared a picture of Director. She was not wearing a mask.
The picture showed her sitting in a group, outdoors. The person who posted it made sure to mention her by name, emphasizing that she had passed a mask mandate for citizens of the county, with a $1000 fine for noncompliance, yet SHE was not wearing a mask in public, nor social-distancing. I'm surprised the Facebook pager didn't also claim that Director was seen NOT-WASHING her hands!
I don't have a dog in this fight. A public official, who streams live updates every couple of weeks concerning the VIRUS numbers in the county, should not expect anonymity when out and about.
Director addressed the issue on her final livestream last Friday. Explaining that she was aware of the picture circulating. That she was at her son's baseball game, outdoors. That she was sitting with her daughter, and her mom and step-dad, who take care of the kids through the week. So she wasn't doing anything different than she would expect of any other county resident. Specifically, she was with family, outside, and had no need to social distance, and no need for a mask. But that she understood why people would hold her to a higher standard. Also, that she would prefer people not post pictures of her children.
That was perfectly reasonable. But so was putting her picture on social media. The picture-taker didn't know it was her daughter in the photo, perhaps.
Anyhoo... it's a slippery slope. You can pass a mandate, but realize that you will be on display, and become the poster-person for that mandate. That's what happens when you're a small-town celebrity.
It's actually more fair than people stalking a former teacher-colleague several years ago, and complaining that he was seen in the beer garden at a local Labor Day Picnic.
4 comments:
How dare you use a Jack Lemmon movie, twist its title to suit your own purposes, and expect us to not protest.
I protest. However, at least I think this one is a first-run post title, and not one you found circling the drain, about ready to head into the sewage system... and you recusitated and recycled it.
(And teachers are not allowed to hydrate themselves? What is the world coming to?)
Sioux,
How dare YOU, as an Out-of-Towner, tell ME, a Grumpy Old woMan, where to find her titles! I guess next, you'll suggest that I search Under the Yum Yum Tree, or on The Wackiest Ship in the Army, or in The Apartment with The Notorious Landlady! Phffft! You might as well give Farmer H instructions on How to Murder Your Wife!
I will drag my titles out of the drain-circle until my fingers become entwined in Pony hair. Some Like it Hot, Madam, but others prefer a title recycled and lukewarm, teetering on the edge of brain-food-poisoning.
Teachers are pedestal-sitting targets, for those who have three fingers pointing back at themselves...
Unless you are in a very crowded place, like New York City in the morning rush, I think being outdoors is safer than indoors where germs can only circulate around the room, so masks would be more necessary.
River,
Yes, but there's a factor here who are so bitter about the mandate (even though they still don't wear them, so nothing has changed in their life) that they want to hold Director's feet to the fire because she signed off on the mandate. They already have a petition to recall the four commissioners, but the Director is not an elected position.
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