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You Can’t Fix Stupid

Editor, News-Register:

After watching the next day’s news coverage of the last day of the RNC convention, two lines came immediately to mind, one from Forrest Gump ,who stated, “Stupid is as stupid does” and comic Ron White’s human perception, “You can’t fix stupid.”

Due to the complacency of the president, totally ignoring the dire consequences of not wearing masks and social distancing, reportedly, 2,000 people sat or stood side by side mostly unmasked to hear the president and others’ speeches. Three hundred mostly unmasked people were involved in states’ roll calls with no social distancing. Four participants have since tested positive for COVID-19. Over-taxed health professionals must find all those who came into contact with the four. Who else among the 2,000 may be infected? Time will tell.

Reported hot spots have been due to no adherence to face masks and social distancing. Colleges and universities reopened and closed, going to virtual learning, because of many individuals’ stubbornness to not follow scientific guidelines to keep the virus under control until a vaccine is available to the public.

Tom Hanks, during an interview recently regarding wearing masks and social distancing said, “It’s such a small thing to ask.” He talked about how important it is to take care of one’s community by doing what would keep others safe as well as themselves. Yet that “small thing” seems to fall on the deaf ears of those who state selfishly it’s about the freedom to do as they please. Safe practices have nothing to do with taking away one’s freedom and everything to do with saving lives.

President Trump’s complacency gives his followers the idea that COVID-19 is under control, and it’s not as bad as scientists state; he knows better. I wonder what my nephew, Robert, would have told him as he breathed his last breath, COVID-19 taking his life at the age of 26.

I see people in stores not wearing masks because they, like the president, think they know better than the scientists. After attending a COVID party in Florida, it was reported that a dying young man said he made a mistake in not taking it seriously. Unmasked people whose breaths are circulating in the enclosed spaces of buildings know better as others are dying or ravaged by this disease. One can only conclude sadly, “You can’t fix stupid” and “stupid is as stupid does” while others pay for their ignorance with their lives or the lives of their family members who are more vulnerable.

Patricia Butler

Wheeling

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