Well, here we are. It’s the first week of Gov. Tim Walz’s statewide mask mandate. We know that many of you were opposed to this action taken by Minnesota’s governor. Some of you believe masks won’t help stop the spread of COVID-19, some believe we need to let the virus wash over to allow us to move on with life, and others believe it is a massive hoax designed to damage President Donald Trump’s reelection bid.
To that last theory, the president has come out in support of masks recently — even calling mask-wearing "patriotic" — and Walz is one of more than 30 Republican and Democrat governors who have enacted mask mandates in their states. So if you still believe this is all a political hoax, there’s probably nothing more we can say to change your mind. You have decided to ignore inconvenient truths.
But as to the other doubters of the mask mandate, we ask you to remember back to 2016 when President Trump was first elected. Amid the anguish of those who opposed him, many Republicans and even those who didn’t vote for him but longed for unity made a simple and reasonable plea: give him a chance.
Many Republicans were willing to acknowledge the concerns of their friends and family over the president’s temperament, his past comments and tweets, but they asked that people put their doubts aside and give the president a chance to lead the country. The example of a pilot and airplane was used often in this debate: You wouldn’t root for a pilot to crash the plane you're flying in just because you don’t like him, neither should you root against the president who is leading your country.
Trump’s supporters were correct. While people should be allowed to have their concerns, we should all as Americans at least hope the president is successful in leading our country.
That brings us to four years later. We are living in turbulent times with this divisive election and a worldwide health crisis that has been dragged into the political arena.
As we said, we know many of you have your doubts and concerns about the mask mandate. There will be plenty of time in the future to debate whether the mandate was effective or necessary, but for now we have a simple and reasonable request for you: give it a chance.
Our country has pulled together in times of strife before. During World War II, citizens were asked to make many sacrifices, including rationing goods such as gasoline, butter and sugar. They didn’t know if it would lead to victory, but they did it with the hope that it was for the common good. That is the same hope governors have today as they are asking citizens to wear masks in public settings.
We don’t know for sure if masks will slow the virus or not. We’re willing to admit that while the majority of medical experts believe it will help, there is still much not known about the virus, and nobody can be certain if masks will have an impact or not. But we’re willing to give masks a chance in the hope that we can save lives and help the country beat this invisible enemy.
A mask mandate is not tyranny. It’s not government overreach. It’s not even close to comparisons of Nazis loading people into boxcars.
Whether you support the mandate or not, or whether you think it will help or not, we ask you to join us and give masks a chance for the good of your communities and the country.
