I was very disappointed this past weekend to see so many people lingering around the downtown streets of Chatham without wearing a mask. I saw large groups of young people, parents, and small children, and only a handful of masks. Most were not social distancing as they lined up for ice cream at Scoops, lingered on the library grounds bare faced, and picked up their take out pizzas at Arminio's. Apparently, these individuals are not very concerned about our current pandemic, or the health of the masked employees at work inside these businesses.

You don’t need to be a doctor, or a scientist, or an expert or anything else on this particular issue. You just need to be able to see in front of your nose.

You are not the center of the universe.

Nor am I.

Hourly workers in these business, and others who need to go downtown to shop, have parents and children and spouses who are medically fragile. They simply want to work and shop in the safest possible environment.

Your medically fragile friends and neighbors can stay home to a point. They do need to eat. They might want to pick up a pizza, or buy an ice cream too. They do need to pick up prescriptions and visit the post office. No one is asking you to wear a mask while riding a bicycle (though there are some masks made just for that), but is carrying a mask with you to put on when you end up downtown and decide to buy something or just hang out too much to ask?

Just imagine the amount of privilege and comfort one must live in to be so insulted or tortured by what is, at worst, a mild inconvenience.

So, before you get all Scarlet O’hara, just stop. Ask yourself if of allllll the battles to pick in this whole wide word right now, this....THIS...is going to be the hill you want to die on?

Maybe this is all for nothing. Maybe face coverings aren’t as efficient, or fool proof, or comfortable as we’d like. But, you aren’t being tortured or oppressed. Do those hard working pizza makers, ice cream scoopers, and fellow citizens a solid and get over yourself.

We are asking many of our healthcare workers to wear bandannas and t-shirts as masks. You aren’t above it. There are school children all over this country who are sewing masks to give away. If a 7 year old can be a decent person and choose to make the world a little more comfortable or safe, then so can you, and so can your child.

There isn’t a Burger King drive-through in downtown Chatham, and no we can’t have it our way. This disease, infection, pandemic, whatever you wanna call it, doesn’t give a damn about you or me. Doesn’t give a damn about black, white, short, tall, age, gender. It’s not our battle to dictate.

The bottom line is, don’t be a jerk. Just put a mask on your self-centered, mouth breathing face and let the staff of our local businesses see the smile in your eyes as we head off with your large pizza or ice cream to consume at a safe distance.

This article has first appeared on Chatham Patch (Webster is the "Mayor" of Chatham Patch), and has since been published on the TapInto.net network of sites.