What is our responsibility to create safety? by BakeR

There are very interesting moral and ethical questions being bandied about these days: 

·      Masks/No Masks?

·      Get tested for COVID/Don’t get tested?

·      Go to work/ Stay Home?

·      Open Schools/Don’t open Schools?

·      Eat Fast Food/Eat a Salad – okay, maybe that’s just a question on my mind and not yours.

It seems to come down to a larger question – Am I responsible in some way for others safety?

Many years ago, I was driving my SUV through a 15MPH construction zone, at dusk, while talking on my cell with my mother.  (I know what you’re thinking – get off your cell!) Since the sun was setting, and I was driving west my visibility was somewhat limited too.  I was watching the headlights coming toward me, when I realized they were coming “straight at me”. 

I said something like, “Oh hell, he’s going to hit me!” Mom yelled, “What?” I said, “talk later” and hung up. Or so I thought, turned out my Mom heard the whole crash!

There was nowhere for me to go, to my right was a 3-4’ drop off, and on my left were more cars coming my way.  Fortunately, the old guy wasn’t going fast and neither was I when we crashed. The cars were banged up, but I was fine. When I went to the other car, I thought the man was drunk, he was slurring words and appeared to be very out of it, with blood pouring down his face where he hit the windshield.   Later the firefighters told me they thought he was in a diabetic shock or even coma. 

 A few days later his wife called me to apologize.  She casually mentioned this was his second accident in less than two months.  WHAT??? 

I could not then and still do not to this day understand how he was still driving if his diabetes was so bad that he could go into a coma.  And this was the second time he had caused an accident! Who’s responsible in that situation – the man, his wife, or the state for not revoking his license? At the time I definitely thought he/she/they were responsible for my safety.  I was okay – but the thought that he could hit a child on a bike, someone in a crosswalk, or a car with children terrified me.  There was a very vivid picture running through my brain of him hitting a child for a few months after.

Which brings me back to the ethical/moral question on everyone’s minds these days. Mask/No Mask? If I believed that severely diabetic man should not be driving, then do I need to take responsibility for the possibility that I could be carrying COVID and give it to someone else? If you thought for an instant that you could give COVID to someone who might die from the virus would you be less cavalier about wearing a mask?

I know if we had clear info about masks, if we really knew the truth about COVID – how it’s transmitted, it would be easier to make these decisions.  But we don’t – there are “New” guidelines almost every week – which is part of the problem. We don’t have concrete information.  They just don’t know enough yet.

On the other hand, while we are telling folks to mask up and social distance, gun sales increased dramatically in March 2020. According to the NY Times, it was the second busiest month ever for gun sales, as people feared unrest during the pandemic.  These figures are estimates based on FBI background checks. 

If we don’t get COVID we might get shot instead!

It was 1981 when the CDC published its first article about AIDS.  It was only 5 years later that Florida, Tennessee and Washington enacted the first HIV-specific criminal laws.  If you go to the CDC website and research HIV laws in the states, you will find that 34 states have laws that criminalize HIV exposure. Some states have a maximum sentence of up to life in prison for violating an HIV-specific statute. 

Is this where we’re headed, how long before laws are passed regarding the transmission of COVID? Will we be required to be tested?  And how accurate are the tests? We’ve all heard stories of people who have tested positive/negative with different results days later.

I don’t profess to have the answers to these moral/ethical questions. I do believe that I am responsible for my own safety.  I don’t walk down dark alleys alone, I don’t drink alcohol because it makes me sick, I avoid all scented products because they give me migraines. And if I were single and dating, I would practice safe sex.  If I have a contagious illness I stay home; I don’t expose others.

It is my hope that people will be responsible if they are contagious, but since that is not always the case then we must be responsible for our own safety.  That includes eating healthy food, taking extra Vitamin C & supplements, being as active as possible, lowering stress and laughing every day, all of which build our immune systems.  (See Reverend Wanda’s article below for more info on supplements)

Please practice your own self-care!

Love and blessings of wellness, BakeR