Do you wear a seat belt when you’re in a car?  Do you put your children or grandchildren in a car seat and strap them in when they ride with you?  Why?   Remember – you have freedom.   To do anything you darn please.  And nobody should be able tell you what to do.  Even if it’s going to save your life.  Or someone else’s. 

I like to smoke my Cohiba Spetre cigars in restaurants.  Can you believe I’ve been told I can’t?  So what if someone doesn’t like eating their filet and mashed potatoes while I’m puffing on my stogie at the next table.   If they don’t like it – they can leave.  Right?  And who do they think they are not letting me in when I’m barefoot – wearing only my Speedo?

In Illinois, seat belts became mandatory on July 1, 1985.  That date coincides with most of the seat belt laws around the country.   Smoking in restaurants ended on January 1, 2008.  Oh – and then there is the policy of “no shoes, no shirt, no service.”   

Of course I am being facetious (which happens to be one of only three words in the English language with the vowels in the correct order).   There are rules we all follow – of courtesy, civility and health.  

Seat belts, I understand.  Same with cigars and bare feet in restaurants.  But lately, masks too.  What I do not understand is why some folks believe it is their right to not wear a mask – when wandering into public places.  As our health care providers have told us – masks prevent you from spreading the Coronavirus to others.  So why do some people feel entitled to ignore the rules?    When I hear these people on the news pontificating about how they have “freedom” to not wear a mask, I wonder — didn’t they ever learn to have respect for other people?  Or are they just knuckleheads?   Probably both. . . . .