CitizenDave-Masks-05-21-2020
Earlier this month, on my way back home from a trout stream, I stopped at a Kwik Trip for gas. While there I noticed that they had 12-packs of Hamm’s on sale for only six bucks. Never one to pass up a great deal on a quality product, I donned my mask and went inside.
The place was busy and only one other person was wearing a mask — a 21-year-old guy wasting his money on expensive beer. I know he was 21 because he was in front of me in line and he got carded by the maskless checkout worker. In fact, none of the workers were wearing masks and there were no plexiglass barriers between them and their customers.
And I got what I thought was a hostile vibe from the other patrons. In particular there was this old guy who I felt was looking at me with disdain. (Old is now defined by me as anyone over 61 years old. Next year I’ll define it as anyone over 62.)
It could have been totally in my imagination. For all I know he was admiring my quality locally procured mask sewn by a young Monona entrepreneur. But it didn’t feel that way. It felt like a glare.
Anyway, I was so struck by the complete lack of precautions taken by Kwik Trip that when I got home I emailed the home office to ask if this was a corporate policy. I got a quick (as you’d expect) reply. Yes, indeed, it is Kwik Trip’s policy not to use shields at their counters or to require their employees, much less customers, to wear masks.
Here’s part of the company’s reply: “Our Kwik Trip management team meets twice a week to implement changes and of course to comply with mandated CDC and state health department procedures. Our co-workers have been given the option of wearing masks and we have provided two washable masks for each person.
“Also we received your concern about our stores putting in plexiglass barriers at the registers. Kwik Trip has evaluated this as part of our COVID-19 response plan in conjunction with following state health department and CDC guidelines. Currently, we are not moving forward with a plexiglass barrier.”
They sort of left me hanging there. They didn’t explain why they weren’t installing barriers. And it was pretty clear to me that, at least in the rural store I visited, the culture of the place was to not wear masks even if the company provided them.
Look, I do have some sympathy for Kwik Trip and for other stores that are scattered all over the state. What is socially required in Madison is socially disdained in other parts of the state. At Trader Joe’s on Monroe Street, in the heart of one of the most liberal neighborhoods in the state, all workers and customers wear masks and the number of customers in the store at one time is strictly regulated. People line up to wait to enter the store, everyone wearing a mask, all strictly observing social distancing and everybody just generally being good liberals. All the carts are wiped down after every use.
On the other hand, a Shawano County campground has gone so far as to ban face masks there.
If a statewide business pursues a Trader Joe’s policy, they’re guaranteed pushback from their most libertarian customers and if they pursue a Kwik Trip policy they’ll be criticized by their liberal patrons. I get that, but what settles the dilemma for me is that public health professionals advise that masks and other social distancing measures are effective in limiting the spread of COVID-19.
I’m not trying to send any kind of political message by wearing a mask. In fact, I’m not even all that much of a liberal these days. I don’t think it’s politically correct; I think it’s scientifically correct.
It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that reaction to the pandemic has now firmly split along ideological and geographic lines. Republicans and rural residents think the concern is overblown and see masks and other restrictions as unnecessary intrusions on their freedom while Democrats and urban dwellers take this all much more seriously and see wearing masks as simple regard for others backed up by science.
But it’s one thing — and a bad enough thing — to decide you won’t wear a mask yourself and another to attack someone who is, because you think it sends a signal about their nanny state politics. I’m not trying to send any kind of political message by wearing a mask. I’m just trying to do my part to limit the spread of a deadly disease.
