We are all too familiar with the term “Road Rage,” an expression used to sugarcoat the inability for drivers to share the road in a safe manner and with common sense without injuring or killing one another. “Road Rage” is a stupid excuse for people with too much “entitlement” issues and not enough accountability being held for people behaving badly.
Now we have “Mask Rage,” a terminology I personally coined used to define the unnecessary altercations between folks who are taking the precautions seriously in the effort to stop the spread of the deadly COVID virus, versus those who are not being mindful and lack the consideration of others when it comes to slowing down the spread of the respiratory disease.
There has been a tidal wave of verbal and physical clashes both reported and unreported between the “masked and unmasked” in the bay area and abroad since the COVID epidemic reared its ugly head. Even I myself had to chastise a few folks for being inconsiderate, similar to the tune of how “Sonny” tongue-lashed the big guy during the dice game scene in the movie “A Bronx Tale” when he said “Stop breathing on me! You’re killing me over here!!” Subsequently, “Sonny” made the big dude go inside the bathroom in a quarantine-type of way.
What doesn’t make the situation any better when it comes down to staying safe and healthy is the fact that president Donald Trump has been saying half-witted things such as how children are basically “immune” to the disease and that the cases of COVID will not increase if we cease or fall back in testing, so to speak. If this way of thinking is coming from the “leader” of this country, who lacks the steady habit of wearing a mask himself then we are in big trouble because how are we to encourage and educate people on the importance of social distancing and wearing masks with Trump making “dum-dum” remarks like the ones mentioned above?
According to research, in the state of California alone it has been reported that the cases of COVID have risen past the 500,000 mark (over 5+ million nationwide) with over 175,000 deaths (combined) while in other parts of the world, such as the Kingdom of Cambodia for instance there are only 273 cases of COVID with no casualties and in South Africa, the stats so far is 596,000 cases with over 12,000 deaths.
The combination of folks being cautious, paranoid and the failure to be more consciously aware has created quite a bit of tension amongst the people. We must work harder together, if we are to nip COVID in the bud and lower the cases of infection. It is selfish and unfair of those who have no regard for others and blindly contribute to the rise of COVID due to the attitude of entitlement and ignorance that lead to the closures of more businesses, institutions and the threat of poverty on a more higher and tragic scale. Personally, I (over) do my part in combating the spread of COVID by wearing not one mask, but two. I also wear two sets of clothing, wash my hands frequently, continue to practice the shelter in place order, going outdoors only for necessities and instead of giving other folks 6 feet of social distancing, I give 8 feet whenever possible amongst the other precautions I take. “Teamwork makes a dream work” as the saying goes and if we all do our part we will soon see positive results instead of pointing the blame at someone else with foolish stereotypes that gets us nowhere in the long run.
Queennandi Xsheba, Staff writer at POOR Magazine and co-founder of The Queen’s Consortium of Humanity