From: Bob DeWeese
Columbus
I would like everyone to consider a thought experiment.
You are walking down a sidewalk on your way to a job interview. In a vacant lot, there is a large mud puddle, and in the puddle, you see a toddler face down in the water, not moving. Do you wade into the puddle and attempt to save the toddler? Of course, you do. To save someone when there is little chance of being harmed yourself seems to be a moral universal. It is written in our DNA. If this is what you would do, your actions would be morally praise-worthy.
But suppose you choose not to, because your shoes would get muddy, your pants would get wet, you would likely be late for your job interview, or maybe you just don’t want to. I think most of us would judge that as being morally reprehensible and you would be worthy of scorn. But, hopefully, all morally serious people would choose the first action.
We all have the opportunity to act in this manner today.
Wearing a mask in public saves lives. The data is out there: wearing masks slows the spread of COVID-19. And since we don’t have a vaccine yet, that’s the biggest tool in our very limited toolbox for slowing the spread.
People from the U.S. cannot travel to Europe because the U.S. is the world’s hot spot for coronavirus cases. We need to at least be willing to do the easy stuff. We need to be willing at the minimum to get our shoes muddy and pull the toddler out of the puddle.
Wearing a mask is not a political or fashion issue. It is a public health issue. It is a moral issue.
I suspect most, if not all of us, would get in the puddle and rescue the toddler. Why aren’t some of you wearing a mask?
