by
The staff that refreshes: Griffin Claw Brewing Company's team in Birmingham masks up to serve grub and grog. (Photo: Facebook)
We ignore foolish, foolhardy fools grousing about masks and look instead at those who do the right thing -- and splash evidence on social media.
Sure, they can be sweaty, uncomfortable and seemed odd many weeks ago (masks, not their wearers). They’re also protective, more common than earbuds and mandatory in most public spots.
Yet, mask-wearing is a flashpoint of "ideological tribalism," as The Washington Post puts it Saturday.
This has played out before: helmets for motorcyclists, seat belts in cars, smoking bans in restaurants. All of those measures provoked battles over personal liberty.
Now it’s masks and the coronavirus, with face coverings emerging as an emblem for what cleaves the nation. A flurry of recent studies supports wearing cloth face coverings as a means to limit transmission of the novel coronavirus, which causes the illness Covid-19. To many people, masks represent adherence to civic duty and a willingness to make individual sacrifices for the greater good of public health.
To others, masks symbolize government overreach and a violation of personal liberty.
Here in Metro Detroit, masks generally are so prevalent that we find enough for the fifth in a series of galleries since early May, with this one posted just seven days after the last.
Here’s how eight stylish and safe Michiganians keep speech, sneeze and cough droplets away from anyone nearby:
Clockwise: Jack White at his Third Man Records on West Canfield Street; Detroit poet and writer Nandi Comer, a 2019 Kresge Artist Fellow; WDIV reporter Māra MacDonald bids "adios to Covid hair" on Saturday; Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
Garlin Gilchrist, Gretchen Whitmer at a Friday deployment ceremony for 64 Michigan National Guard soliders, Willie Horton and state Rep. Tenisha Yancey, D-Detroit.
