This morning we drove to Crystal Lake for an Open Water swim. It felt great to get into the water. Unfortunately, my Garmin watch seems to think I can swim on land as well as in the lake. It went a little crazy tracking my distance this morning.
As you can see, at several points along the swim route, even though I freestyled by sighting from buoy to buoy, the Garmin thinks I swam onto Lake Avenue at several points.
Crazy Garmin
I swam for 40:00 and it credited me with a pace of 1:28 per hundred. Never in my life have a swum that fast. Sadly I’d been encouraged during the swim that I was clipping along at 1:42 per 100 pace. Even that would have been super fast for me.
In truth, I probably swam about 1600 meters, just as I did a few weeks ago when my goggles fogged up and I couldn’t sight for the life of me. I wandered all over the place and I was so embarrassed by the potential look of that swim route that I didn’t even save it. I didn’t want anyone to see how badly I’d swerved around.
Goggles on
Like most swimmers, I wear goggles every time I’m in the water. It’s what you do to be able to see clear and just as importantly, protect your eyes from either chlorine or contaminants found in lake or river water. You put goggles on because it is the safe, practical and smart thing to do.
There’s no guarantee the goggles won’t leak a bit if you don’t fit them right. And without a shot of anti-fog on them, it is surely possible for swim goggles to fog up and become a problem. Nothing in this world is perfect when it comes to protection.
Masks on
Which brings us to the topic of wearing face masks to protect ourselves and others from the spread of Coronavirus. Right now the infection rates are peaking all across the country. States like Illinois that imposed Stay At Home orders and have opened up in stages are remaining relatively stable. But states like Texas, Arizona and Florida, where governors at first refused to issue orders requiring people to wear masks are seeing huge spikes in their infection rates.
Too much, too soon
Some states like Wisconsin impetuously flung open the doors of bars and restaurants, but within days saw Covid-19 cases rise like an overheated thermometer. In some of those states, including California where Shelter In Place orders worked for weeks, the cases of Coronavirus and Covid-19 have risen again as people rush back to “normal” activities.
To make matters much worse, there is a movement afoot in America that resists wearing masks at all. Anti-Maskers claim their liberties are being infringed upon by government directives to wear masks in public.
Which seems stupid. Wearing a mask to protect yourself from an infectious, airborne disease is the same as wearing swim goggles to protect your eyes when swimming. Sure, you can swim without them, but the impact on your eyes can be quite deleterious, especially out in saltwater.
The Salty Water of Covid-19
When it comes to social conditions in America right now, we’re in extremely salty water when it comes to protecting our lungs and bodies from Covid-19 infection. All the government is asking people to do to protect themselves and others is to wear a mask in places where the “salt of the earth,” that’s other people, come in contact with each other.
The rest of the time people can do what the hell they want. You don’t need to wear a mask while driving around. It’s not even necessary in the parking lot of a grocery store, or sitting around in your backyard with people you know. The risks are only increased when you go swimming in the Public Sea of People that is America.
A spoiled and selfish populace
But too many Americans are acting like spoiled little brats when it comes to considerate living. They’ve banded together to whine and complain that being “forced” to wear a mask is a sign of tyranny by the government, or is unconstitutional. Such selfish, pathetic tactics of assuming victimhood to make some noxious claim of independence is not American in any sense of the word.
How do people even get this confused?
The interesting thing about the Anti-Maskers is that their perverse cogitations have unmasked the twisted notion of how they view freedom itself. It is likely that these people wearing tyranny masks are some of the same people Trumpeting the famous line that “freedom is not free” when referring to the sacrifices of our military in defending the nation. Our military has to wear all kinds of gear in all kinds of conditions. We don’t hear them whining to the public about their obligations, do we? Only when the equipment is insufficient do we hear our soldiers voice objections.
Lack of protection = blown up humvees
Such was the case during the last invasion of Iraq, when scrap metal had to be slapped on the bottom of Humvees. Then we did hear voices from the soldiers on the front, because their lives were at great risk from having underprotected equipment.
And what did Donald Rumsfeld tell them in reply? “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
Where were all the concerned conservative voices when that cynical statement was made and that major debacle unfolded? Not a word was heard from the Right about any of that. They put their heads down and pretended that it never happened.
And now, when it comes to something as simple and easy as wearing a mask in public to protect against the spread of Coronavirus infection, these fake-ass patriots won’t do a single thing to protect their fellow citizens. They’re a massive pack of hypocrites, the Anti-Maskers. And now the truth about them is yet again unmasked.
Tyranny my ass
Some of the most vocal idiots have shown up at public meetings to spout conspiracy theories and repeat the same verbal detritus they read on the Internet.
In many many cases, their faces contort into masks of anger and imagined fears.
Their hero on the Anti-Masking front is none other than President Donald Trump, who refuses to wear a mask at all. But in truth, he never really goes out in public without that mask of orange makeup and a massive combover to hide insecurities about his complexion and his age. He’s the Clown King to all these Anti-Maskers.
That’s who the spoiled populace in America worships, a fraud, and by no coincidence, their behavior is equally, fraudulently, unpatriotic. Wear the mask, you stubborn and stupid people. We can see who you really are with or without one.
We Run and Ride 
They’re not complaining. They’re just not wearing masks and not getting sick. They have realized this is another flu, and no one ever reacted to other flu viruses even though they’ve resulted in more deaths, with more accurate numbers.
Yeah that’s why America leads the world in deaths and new cases. Get a clue?
Actually, it doesn’t. You’re listening to propaganda. We’ve done the real research. And notice, I’m not sending a barb in return. Decent people with real facts don’t need to insult to make their points because the understanding stands on its own. God bless.
During WWII people who lived along the coast were told to turn off their lights and close their shades so that German submarines could not use them for navigation.
Did those people whine about not having a nice ocean breeze through their open windows?
Well, if they did they probably got a visit from the local Civil Defense officials, police and possibly the FBI.
If they left their lights on they were giving assistance to the enemy.
Sometimes we need to come together against a common enemy, put aside our differences and do what needs to be done.
This has nothing to do with coming together. This has nothing to do with WWII. This is people seeing that the epidemic is not an epidemic, but another flu which we’ve never reacted to other, even more dangerous germs/viruses in this way. When HIV came along, and the numbers are staggering, “they” never reacted ever so closely. Why? And other diseases? So people weigh their decisions. That’s America. We don’t all agree, and we shouldn’t. But I guarantee, if something like the bubonic plague came along, people would certainly follow common decency. The Constitution and individuality are the framework for a better future.
My point was that people should come together like we have in the past.
As you may recall AIDS was “the gay” disease and main stream America didn’t care. And it was harder to transmit hiv.
If the black plague came around again we’d debate that to death also.
Actually, the resistance to direction by the CDC and other scientists is neither constitutional or rational. It is the direct product of the anti-intellectual campaign of the religious Right and its feckless claims of victimhood as it seeks to impose its theocratic, archly racist agenda behind the mask of MAGA. Or don’t you understand what’s actually going on?
Nice try. We will continue to think for ourselves, which is our birthright. Never let anyone’s opinions, their rhetoric, their use of barbs, their intellectual reasoning, prevent common sense and realizations. Heard it all. And because I do know exactly what’s going on, we continue to encourage others to think for themselves. Coming together as a nation means on what is rational, what is good for the country, but never following those who’ve bought into rhetoric or propaganda. We’ve been following the rabbit’s trail our entire lives.
Agreed, we should look at the facts and make up our own minds.
The problem is that some people look at the facts and make a political decision.
A prime example are COVID parties. That’s like intentionally trying to get AIDS.
I cannot comprehend why people go against their own self interests.
Just being totally selfish would make a logical thinker put on a mask, wash their hands and adhere to social distancing. Screw the other guy, I want to live.
The virus is real, people really are dieing and there are reasonable precautions all of us can take.
They’ve done well miseducating so many and propagandizing them for years/ decades. They’ve taught people to feel good about caring when caring is being responsible, working, taking the risks of life, and supporting freedom in others, encouraging them to think for themselves and take the consequences, being responsible for one’s own decisions. Not pull the wool over other people’s eyes to make yourself feel better. Interesting comment.
So in “thinking for yourself” do you understand that a significant portion of Trump’s support comes from a long, calculated line of segregationist Christian zealots eager to impose their bigotry upon the nation? And that the entire MAGA meme is nothing more than a dog-whistle plea to punish immigrants, blacks, women, gays and others for wanting basic civil rights? And that the mask resistance is symptomatic of this victimhood mentality driving people to claim their liberties are being infringed upon even while the movement to elect Trump is a direct product of this racist and xenophobic attitude, now repeated in a neo-conservative version of Manifest Destiny. That’s what’s going on, all while people like you claim to be “independent thinkers” when in fact it’s the same old shit that drove the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, McCarthyism and frankly, resistance to science based on ignorant religious tropes. You “think for yourself” in terms of selfish wishes and fearful claims to superior morality. In fact, it is conservatism without conscience. There is nothing “rational” about the current regime, whose fascist instincts include threatening American lives with our own military, with promoting police brutality, with congratulating white supremacists for their hate agenda, and with ignoring climate change for the ideology of near-term profits. Privatize the profits and socialize the losses. That’s Trump in a nutshell, who handed out billions to his buddies through PPP and cynically told Americans that $1200 was a big fat check. It’s all bullshit, and you’re obviously convinced it’s something else. Your claims to “common sense” are laughable.
It’s like hearing the same line of rhetoric over and over. Easy to see. But for those of us who think for ourselves, understand, do our own research, and understand human nature, we continue to encourage others to think for themselves. I’ve even said to people, even when I talk, it’s okay to question my own words with your own observations, research, and experience. Just be honest with yourself. Don’t ever buy into what anyone says unless it rings true within.
But you haven’t “done your research.” You don’t grasp even the most obviously calculated attempts by Trump and his ilk to manipulate the public through propagandistic means. You’ve chosen to brand yourself a “free thinker” but you’re nothing of the sort. If anything, you’re numb to anything that threatens your worldview. Hence the claim that the “same line of rhetoric.” It’s not rhetoric that the United States of America has the most serious outbreak in this virus of anywhere in the world. And it’s not rhetoric that for two fucking months, when this all started, Trump pretended it didn’t exist, insisted it would magically disappear, and he’s still doing the same thing. Now he wants to force kids to go back to school to make everything look normal so that he can get re-elected. The level of your irresponsibility in defending this type of behavior us cultlike. Trump is a demagogue, a fascist and a bully. Even his own niece recognizes what a disturbing brute he is, along with high-level officials such as Bolton, Tillerson, Mattis, and every American general worth their salt. Even the dude who walked to the church with Trump admitted he was wrong. Yet somehow you’re smarter and more adept at understanding Trump and his blathering supporters than these people who worked with him, who saw his corruption firsthand? It’s naive, and it’s full of shit. You’re no better than an 8th grader rooting for the Lakers. it’s idol worship and sycophantic dullness.
People who are not free thinkers, fallen to propaganda, hate those who do think for themselves. I’ve been pondering upon this. I think it’s because, their thinking is hate or resentment based, fear based, perhaps seeking importance for themselves, to seem wise in their own eyes. It’s an interesting phenomenum. As I share, what does it mean to me if others don’t agree? Then there are those, by seeing for themselves, that do.
If you’re truly “open minded” and a free thinker, you ought to read this. It’s an interview with an author that understands the mindset and tactics of a demagogue. https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/demagogue-for-president-historian-details-donald-trumps-6-weird-tricks-for-authoritarian-rule/#.XwefreriwHE.linkedin
I’ll follow my own trail. You to yours. But as I’ve explained to others, whatever you read, read without bias. Just read and allow understanding, not preprogramming, to light the way.
As for your “birthright,” that is an unwitting acknowledgement of the presumed privilege upon which your worldview depends. It’s almost stunning how easy it is to see right through you.
https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/us-leads-world-coronavirus-cases-deaths To your “other” point that you’ve “done your research” on Coronavirus cases.