It’s 70˚ here in sunny South Carolina, warm enough to swim a dozen laps at the local Y. I quit swimming when it was colder, because I didn’t want to go into a crowded locker room during the pandemic. Before it got too cold, I would get out of the pool, head out the exit by the pool, and walk safely to my car. When the temperature dropped, I avoided walking to my car wearing nothing but a wet-bathing suit and T-shirt, and my mask.
When I got to the Y yesterday, I was told it wouldn’t open for fifteen minutes because they had to close due to electrical problems. I returned in fifteen minutes. They scanned my forehead for a fever, but I had already found out their policy on mask-wearing was optional. I asked if the pool was still heated (84˚) and they said yes.
No one, save a lifeguard, was there. I had the place almost to myself. Then I realized the lifeguard, who was NOT wearing a mask would hover over me to make sure I didn’t drown. The irony didn’t escape me. I was in a hundred times more danger from catching Covid from him than from drowning. Never was the water over my head. Last year I was swimming in the Caribbean Sea for over a half hour, hundreds of yards from shore. Thanks to the lifeguard’s mask-less oversight, today’s swim was far more dangerous. I tried swimming wearing a mask but it resulted in two problems: I couldn’t breathe in and I couldn’t breathe out. So to keep my distance from him I chose a middle lane. All other lanes were empty. Too bored to sit in the lifeguard chair, he followed me around, and more than once was standing right where I had to turn around at the end of the pool.
By the time I finished my laps, I noticed a mother was sitting in a chair while her son swam in the shallow end of the pool. She wasn’t wearing a mask either. Just my luck, she was sitting two feet from where I hung up my towel, T-shirt, face-shield, and mask. I asked her to move away so I could get my stuff.
I had my first vaccine shot two weeks ago. Yet I know the value of two plus two. Two shots plus two weeks, and then you’re safe.
Driving home I listened to the news. I heard Republican Governor Henry McMaster was lifting the requirement to wear masks in South Carolina, as though the pandemic were completely over. He took credit for the vaccine roll-out as though he had anything to do with it. The only state agency that deals with getting a vaccine is DHEC, (Department of Health and Environmental Control). Going to their website to get help getting the vaccine is a waste of time. In the words of one frustrated applicant:
DHEC links to various corporate sites, which all say “accepting appointments” until you jump through hoops to prove you’re eligible and say where you live, then when you get to their actual scheduling PAGE, it says, basically, “nothing available check back later.”
Not a single one offers the option to be notified when appointments are available. So you have to check EACH company’s site DAILY? Maybe multiple times daily? And jump through the same hoops every time?
So the only area where the governor has had any influence on rolling out the vaccine here, had made things worse, not better.
But McMaster’s biggest mental blunder is his claim that since hospitalizations and deaths were down, it isn’t necessary to wear masks any longer:
“Now that the majority of South Carolinians are eligible to receive the vaccine, and infections and hospitalizations have dropped significantly, state agency heads may safely bring back the last group of state employees working remotely,”
Not only has Moron McMaster opened up bars and restaurants, he now says wearing masks inside restaurants and bars is optional as people know what is their own best interest.
Like hell they do. One friend who doesn’t wear a mask told me he won’t get the vaccine because he figures if he hasn’t gotten it yet, he never will. Yesterday I called my auto repair shop because my driver-side seat-belt wouldn’t work. He told me I probably needed to replace it to the tune of $500, as he doubted they could fix it. “It’s too dangerous to drive without a seatbelt,” he warned me—even though he interacts with dozens of strangers in close proximity without wearing a mask every day at his business. Half of his customers don’t wear masks either. Fortunately I managed to fix the seatbelt myself—saving $500 and eliminating the need to deal directly with those who think they don’t need to wear a mask.
Yet there is a huge difference between wearing a mask and wearing a seatbelt. Not wearing a seatbelt endangers only yourself. Not wearing a mask endangers others around you. Yet in South Carolina it is illegal to drive without a seatbelt, but perfectly legal to go around anywhere without a mask. Talk about ass-backwards.
What we are suffering from in South Carolina is an epidemic of mass stupidity. What we have is worse than a lack of good leadership. What we have is a leader who is trying to lead us over a deadly cliff as though we were lemmings. He made this lame-brain decision because his brain is lame. McMaster is a moron!
The word moron wasn’t always an insult. At one time is was a clinical diagnosis of mental retardation not as severe as being an idiot or imbecile:
Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.
— Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912
I would further add that McMaster’s prescription for further sickness and death makes him an ignorant moron, as he is ignoring both common sense and science—as well as all the medical experts.
The first time I heard Henry McMaster speak in person was when I was attending a debate between him and his political opponent for Governor, James Smith. Both were asked if they supported legalizing medical marijuana. Smith courageously said yes. McMaster said no, claiming there were no medical benefits for using marijuana. Scattered boos could be heard across the auditorium.
McMaster won and Smith lost. At that time I wondered if McMaster was actually smart enough to know there are many medical uses of marijuana, but considered it politically inadvisable to say so in a debate. If so, he was a liar, but not an idiot. On the other hand it was possible McMaster was so ignorant as to the medical benefits of marijuana, he could blame his erroneous response on stupidity, as opposed to cunning political duplicity.
Now I am convinced McMaster is a moron.