Mask Whiplash
One could be excused for a bit of confusion. In the same daily news feed from the Associated Press are two stories regarding Iowa’s new law limiting issuance of mask mandates at the local level, making them only enforceable if issued by the state.
The law was challenged in state court, and a judge refused to block enforcement of the law while hearings were held. Then late yesterday, a federal judge who earlier this year was forced to apologize for derogatory comments he made publicly about President Trump issued an order in the challenge filed in federal court, this one prohibiting enforcement of Iowa’s law.
Big city school districts in Iowa wasted no time…Des Moines issued its mandate to take effect tomorrow, while Iowa City school board members were scheduled to meet today and impose a mandate immediately; school officials even told staff, faculty and students to bring a mask with them today because they expected at some point during the school day it would be required.
No doubt certain cities that have been banned from issuing local mandates will be chomping at the bit to restrict the rights of citizens again. But it may not have the desired effect.
First of all, there’s a difference between a controlled school setting and an entire city, so just because implementation of the law was blocked for schools doesn’t mean cities can now jump in. Second, there’s far less tolerance by the general public than a year ago.
Some of us have read the data and listened to experts who point out the masks do more harm than good in most cases. And some of us chose to do business in cities that did not have mask mandates before, avoiding those that did. It was easy to do in the Cedar Valley; Cedar Falls did not have a mandate, Waterloo did–and that meant some of us avoided stores and restaurants in Waterloo in favor of ones in Cedar Falls. Imagine how that would be now, with so many having gotten the shot so they would not have to mask up.
One caution on all this…these are precedent setting governmental intervention efforts. Those with power won’t hesitate to use it again on something else that’s far less valid. Going along with any of this without question, or discussion, lays the groundwork for serious abuse later.
