Choosing Not to Wear a Face Covering Doesn’t Make You Tough
Also Being Tough Isn’t a Thing
This has gone beyond anecdotal. Whenever my family takes a walk around our Los Angeles neighborhood we receive an unmistakable signal. Men think they don’t need to wear face coverings. It doesn’t matter if they’re jogging, running errands or strolling around. Way too high of percentage of them are not in masks. Maybe they think it’s pointless because they’ve read a mask won’t stop them from getting Covid-19. But if we’re both wearing masks when we cross paths, you tell me how that doesn’t dramatically help us. Spoiler alert: it does. So maybe there’s another reason? It’s possible they think they’re too tough to wear them? Well, gentlemen, I’ve known some tough guys in my life, Let me tell you about some of them. They all are different kinds of tough but they have one thing in common, they wear masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19. (Names and some details are changed for privacy).
Danny
Danny is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever known. He has a huge heart too. He takes care of random old ladies in his building. He’s a youth mentor and would really have a problem with me calling him tough. He works harder at just one of his three jobs than I work at my one. Thing started out at little rough for Danny in his early twenties. Brutal might be a better word. One night he got high. He got so high on a bad combination of drugs that he lost his grip on reality. He doesn’t remember how but he ended up near the beach and he “borrowed” someone’s bike. He was stopped by a bicycle cop up the coast. The problem here for Danny, of many, was he really had no idea what was real and what wasn’t. So a guy on a mountain bike wearing shorts didn’t read cop to him in that moment. The cop approached him with his baton in front of him to protect himself and Danny reacted badly. He grappled with the cop. Danny is unnaturally strong. He’s built like a fire plug but moves like a tornado. He ripped the baton from the cop. Danny stood over the cop with the baton and the cop was on his knees. The cop shot Danny four times in his stomach. Danny survived those four bullets. Then he survived prison too and got his life together. Right after prison he got a job at a Foot Locker. One day the cop who shot him randomly walked into his store. They knew each other right away. The cop gripped Danny’s hand and told him he was sorry. Danny pulled him in for a hug instead. The cop starts crying as they hug and he says, “I was trying to kill you. I was trying to kill you.” Danny responds. “ I know man. I know.” If you think you’re tougher than Danny, I don’t believe you. One more thing about Danny. You’ll never see him at any of his three jobs without a face covering. Never.
Josh
Josh moved a lot as a kid. His father was working his way up the corporate ladder in America and got transferred a lot. So Josh was the new kid on the block, in the neighborhood and the school almost every two years of his childhood. Josh is also black and more than not he was the only black kid on the block, in the neighborhood and the school. But somehow he always ended up as class president, so yeah he was tough. He’s kept that toughness his whole life. He always delivers it with a smile and calm voice but he leaves no doubt. If you plan is to push him over, then you’re going to have a tough job ahead of you. He’s not a small guy. I’m not a small guy and I feel like a delicate flower around him. His sons are my son’s best-friends and we use “What would Josh say about that?” whenever we need to frighten our son to his core. It works every time. I wish everyone could have a Josh in their life. And one more thing about Josh, he doesn’t leave the house without his mask on. If you’d like to ask him about it, he would be happy to discuss it with you. Firmly but with a smile under that mask.
Ivonne
Ivonne is the manager at my local laundromat. If you’ve never been to a Los Angeles laundromat, well done by you. They suck. Homeless people use them as a source for potable water. Not everyone who walks through the doors is clinically insane but it’s not small percentage either. Everyday during our lock down Ivonne has shown up to work. It’s not something you think of as a “front line worker” position but it is for sure. Ivonne fled El Salvador to keep her very young sons from being recruited into gangs. She raised them south of downtown Los Angeles and shaped them into decent, hard working young men. I know you don’t think you’re tougher than her. And she shows up every day for work with her mask on ready to deal with whatever has walked in that day to the open door of the Laundromat. Don’t let it be you, not wearing a mask and thinking you’re tough.
