Idaho parents who are having their kids burn masks will have blood on their hands

I just watched the news and came away angrier than I have in a long time at the stupidity of some of my fellow Americans.

I saw parents in Idaho, in the middle of a very contagious pandemic, encouraging their kids to throw medical masks in a trash can to burn and destroy them just to make a political statement.

That got me thinking. Would these parents:

• Let their kids jump out of an airplane without a parachute?
• Allow their kids to run across a NASCAR racetrack in the middle of a race?
• Encourage their kids to swim in a shark-infested pool?
• Let them eat a meal they knew contained poison?

Up until now, I would have thought, “Of course not. What kind of parent cares so little for their child that that he or she would allow such behavior?” Now, I’m not so sure.

These parents are pushing their kids to do something that could cause the deaths of innocent people and, God-forbid, maybe even themselves. And if people die because the mask that could have saved their life was set afire in a trash can then these parents have blood on their hands.

Encouraging children to destroy life-saving devices, an activity that borders on child-abuse, could never happen in these United States, was what I believed before today.

That kind of activity is so cold-hearted, selfish and near criminal that parents would be ashamed to allow themselves to be photographed doing it, I once thought.

Yet, there it was. On national television.

Actually, now that I think about it, I have to wonder why I’m surprised at all. During this pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 520,000 Americans so far, many of us in this country have done all sorts of things I can’t quite believe.

• We have denied COVID-19 even existed.
• We have refused to take the simplest of measures to prevent its spread.
• We have supported politicians who have worked hard to not help people suffering from the disease, both physically and financially.
• We have listened to a president politicize the illness so much so that many of us are violating the rights and well-being of Asians simply because the disease started in China.
• We continue to hold super-spreader events that cause the disease to infect more and more of us.
• Many of us refuse to take the life-saving vaccine that has been proven to be effective.
• And many parents, including some who are being discussed here, have refused, and probably will refuse in the future, to have their kids vaccinated.

And now that we are starting to turn the corner, and with the numbers of new cases and deaths finally starting to drop, we seem to be turning our back on our progress.

In addition to a number of states pulling back on their restrictions, including mask-wearing, and allowing businesses to fully reopen, https://my3centsworth.com/2021/03/04/thanks-to-the-actions-of-two-republican-governors-another-covid-surge-could-be-right-around-the-corner/ many of us prefer a good time over safety.

In that same news report to which I referred above, a person attending this weekend’s Daytona Bike Week, a gathering of bikers in Daytona Beach, Fla., said he was there because he was tired of the restrictions and wanted to have some “fun.”

Among the other super-spreader events planned this weekend are the NBA All-Star game and related parties as well as other sporting events.

But to return to the original source of my anger: what uncaring parents are doing to their children. If parents don’t want to wear masks, that’s up to them. But what kind of example are they setting for the kids?

Those masks could have been donated to organizations that truly want to use or distribute them. The parents could have taught their kids that responsible adults listen to scientists and physicians, especially in times of medial catastrophes.

And they could have told them that the nearly 2,000 COVID deaths in Idaho could have been prevented with the use of the masks that they were destroying. And they could have told them that those who will still die will be their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends.

But that would have been too responsible. And too adult.

One more point about this blog. Usually, I try to run a photograph or some kind of graphic with my posts. And, sure enough, photos of the children and their parents burning the masks are available. But I will not dignify those idiots with a photograph.

Instead, I will run a photo of where too many of them just might wind up all for the want of a mask.

And as for the rest of us, those who are intelligent enough to be doing the right things and helping turn this pandemic around, I offer my thanks and a nod of gratitude.

And an acknowledgement that we are showing the world that we are all not all idiotic Americans.