What's the worst wearing a mask can do?

As a person who works for the county and has a job to be on top of information, and as a person who wants to be the most effective in my job, here are just a few short points I want to make.

First of all the COVID-19 virus is real. It affects people differently but the underlying fact about this is, it is real.

Secondly, in our counties across Montana it is the “right or wrong,” “not Ok,” “it is Ok,” “it’s taking my rights away,” “what about that guy’s rights” type of balking that is making health departments and emergency management teams frustrated, bewildered and hopeless in some cases.

The health department is not out to get you, they are not out to shut your business down. Directors do not wake up in the morning drink their coffee and say to themselves, “How can I make this person’s situation worse for them?” Instead they are actually stressed out and upset that they have to enforce and be the “bad guy” because most of you don’t see what happens behind the scenes. They are upset to some degree because they were unable to keep people safe.

Some directors think, like you and I, that this was done the hard way or why didn’t the state take a better approach? Regardless, it’s now become their job to do.

Threatening and harmful remarks and phone calls do not make anything easier on anyone.

Masks are inconvenient and they are hot and having expectations of kids to keep them on is unreal and yes we know the on-and-on with the mask problem.

What the public does not understand is that this is passed down from a higher state level and it’s a compliance thing. So, you don’t want to be told to wear a mask and that is your big problem, then, here, “Would you please wear this mask for a little while when you are in public?”

Lastly, I just want to point out that not everyone is going to agree, ever! That is a fact and has been the way humanity has conducted itself since the dawning of time, but, once again, you don’t have to go out of your way to be hateful and harmful.

So I urge you to not look at this as your rights being taken away because they are not. It is stated in the Montana annotated codes that during a state of emergency the governor can make judgement calls that are enforceable by law and that is what he did.

Elections are coming up, the economy has been just like Montana weather, there is so much added stress to everyone’s households now, jobs are affected, families are struggling more and that is on top of the other problems that are around for everyone every other day of the year that there is not a pandemic.

So, with all of that being stated, the health departments and your emergency management teams are not here to make things “hard” on you, we are simply following what we are handed down from higher ranking.

There is so much information on the internet about masks good, masks bad you can clearly do your own research on the matter, but we are just doing our jobs. I heard it said somewhere a little while ago, and I’ve adopted the saying myself, “If I wear a mask then that’s the worst that happens, if you don’t wear a mask you might have the worst happen.”

I just wanted to get something out there for our community to know that not all of us agree with how things have happened nor do we like the masks at all either, but that’s what we do because that’s the best we can do.

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Amanda Frickel is Hill County DES coordinator