The Mayor of Anchorage Isn't to Blame
The Mayor is not responsible for COVID-19, no matter how many times you shit on her in some Facebook group. Do business owners honestly believe that healthcare workers are expendable as our ICU capacity has fluctuated between 4-6 beds over the past week?
The only thing I hear when people say, "open up," is a total disregard for the well-being of our healthcare workers and fellow Alaskans. I get that businesses are hurting, but before you blame the Mayor or the Assembly - look first at those who refuse to wear a mask, who refuse to social distance, and who, through their chanting of the words "tyranny and tyrant," demonstrate they quite literally don't care about others and continue to make life hell for all of us.
Cities and countries worldwide are managing the pandemic - those places are open for business and functioning. Not us though...we stupidly debate whether we should have to make temporary sacrifices, whether a company can refuse service to an anti-masker, and when hospitals start filling up - turn the entire discussion into a political "debate" where a vocal minority of conspiracy theorists demand a seat at the table to be heard. You shouldn't get a seat at the table anymore. You blew it.
Dr. Zink and Anchorage Health Department Epidemiologist Janet Johnson have been clear, as have our health officials. Wear a mask, enforce the mandates, and you can have your schools and economy. You don't get to spread the plague around to our most vulnerable and then make demands of the very people following the "rules." What's the counterargument? 'Well, we let all those un-masked people run around our stores without masks, let our kids play with other kids, we had large group gatherings, and now that hospital capacity is teetering on the brink - let's keep all the businesses open, cram children and teachers back into schools and overrun the hospitals.'
No. You don't get to have it both ways. In what twisted Anchorage are we living where people believe they are free to infect and sicken others? Anchorage never used to be like this. It's both disheartening and sad.
Most of us grew up being taught that it only takes a few people to ruin it for everyone else, and that's precisely what has happened in Anchorage. Blame the anti-maskers, conspiracy theorists, and the COVID-19 minimizers, but you don't get to blame our elected leaders nor our health officials who have warned us for weeks and months that if we don't change our behavior, they will have no choice but to take action to keep our most vulnerable safe.
