Who Was That Masked Man?

With all of the stupid flubs and misstatements that Joe Biden has made during the past year he might be well advised to wear his Wuhan mask full-time in the chance that voters will not recognize this dithering old fool and will not attribute his mindless remarks to his political candidacy.

On the other hand, in the year of the Wuhan, it’s a bit fearful when entering a bank lobby or the neighborhood convenience store these days, because everyone is wearing a mask. One can only imagine that one day we’ll hear two or more masked criminals simultaneously demanding money from the facility’s cash register, then have a gun fight between the robbers, and finally have the police shoot innocent masked customers simply because you can’t tell a customer from a crook any more. In the twenty-first century, we’re finding that the edicts of our government are re-creating the old Keystone Cops movie routines into our daily lives.

Masks are intended to either frighten someone, amuse someone or to hide the facial identity of a person doing something illegal or embarrassing, and the wide usage of masks in the year of the Chinese Flu is none of these things. Surgery is another use of a mask that ninety-nine percent of people will never be seen in, but the surgeon wears a mask to protect the ailing patient, not the surgeon.

Masks make people look ridiculous, but are too often viewed as being stylish at this point in time; it’s kind of like wearing trendy, over-the-top clothing or pre-ripped jeans. Whether the garments are really cool or not, being stylish is at least the intent of the wearer. But masks, which are becoming a de rigueur fashion statement in America, make even pretty people look like fools who are slaves to the fashion of the moment.

But it does no good to tell people that recycling their own CO2 within their masks and blocking fresh air from entering their lungs is not a healthy practice, so we’ll just have to be understanding and polite when we see the mask and glove combination out in public. I suppose that we shouldn’t be surprised when hairnets and booties are at some point added to the mask/glove combo and become the style among the smart-set. One fears that before long, in order to keep up with leftist attire trends, we’ll be wearing a white, pointed, KKK hood, like Virginia Governor Ralph Northam wears when he‘s not in black-face. One cannot be too safe, nor too politically correct.

We cannot escape the notion that the mask thing is political and that going masked is trendy but if you want to inhale your own recycled breath while outside in clean air on a beautiful Spring day, be my guest.