In another attack on the integrity of Northern State University and other-oriented public behavior, a letter to the editor in my local Monday paper claims that defying public health rules is free speech.
Bob Schatz incorrectly claims that at the final Aberdeen crackerbarrel Saturday before last, Northern State University violated the First Amendment by ejecting attendees who refused to comply with Northern’s mask rule:
Saturday, four women were sitting together. The women were not causing a stir, nor were they calling attention to themselves. The women were quiet and respectful. During the time Rep. Lana Greenfield was giving her opening comments, two male employees of Northern approached the women and demanded they put their masks on. There was no reason for these women to be intimidated during Ms. Greenfield’s comments. The men eventually got so loud that the moderator interrupted Ms. Greenfield and the women were asked to leave [Bob Schatz, {paywall} letter to the editor, Aberdeen American News, 2021.03.15].
Um, where’s the First Amendment issue here? Four women were violating a campus policy. That policy exists for the safety of all people on campus and members of the surrounding community. Schatz can’t dress up an action that endangers others as protected speech.
The women could have whipped off their blouses and scrawled “Knockers for Novstrup!” across their quiet and respectful bosoms. That’s more clearly an act of political expression, with none of the public health impacts of going maskless during a pandemic, but Northern staff would have been just as justified in removing such insufficiently dressed attendees as they were the four unmasked women. The First Amendment does not apply here.
Ah, but rather than make a coherent First Amendment critique, Schatz goes off on a whole nother stick in his craw, those darn black kids kneeling during the National Anthem:
Over the last several months, not wearing a mask has become a form of free speech. There is a double standard at Northern. Many of us feel kneeling during the national anthem is offensive, yet we are asked to accept it as a form of free speech. Not wearing a mask is also free speech [Schatz, 2021.03.15].
Bob, the double standard is all yours. Going maskless can spread a disease that kills people. Kneeling during a song at a public event makes Schatz feel ooky. Yet Schatz praises the former as bold free speech and disdains the latter. Schatz fails to apply the basic test of all liberties, that the freedom to swing our fist ends at the other person’s nose. Violating public health rules almost literally hits other people in the nose and threatens injury and death. Assuming a different posture from the crowd during the National Anthem harms no one.
Schatz says he left the crackerbarrel with the maskless women and removed his own mask in protest. Evidently Schatz believes his right to protest supersedes everyone else’s right to live.
I can live with honest protest… but we all may have trouble living with unneighborly people like Bob Schatz who think putting others in physical danger is free speech.
If I act in a reckless, careless, dangerous manner, if through those actions I cause harm to others, then I am held responsible for that harm I have cause to others. If I do not scrape my frosted windows and hit another car, that is my fault. If I dig holes in my sidewalk for people to fall into and people fall and hurt themselves, that is my fault. Somehow the Right/MAGA has divorced containing the spread of the Corona from the list of responsible actions a person is REQUIRED to take.
I think it is solely because it is problematic – if not impossible – to hold a person accountable, to punish them, for spreading the disease. So we see the party of “personal responsibility” show its true colors as the party of wanton selfishness. ANY amount of personal freedom is worth ALL cost to others. This is seen clearly in worker exploitation, in environmental degradation, Jim Crow disenfranchising . . . so why should mask wearing be any different?
Ayn Rand would be proud.
This is a great example of how the right wing turns everything into a culture war issue. Schatz draws a false equivalency between what he appears to see as two cultural signifiers. To me, his comments read like, “I was asked to accept athletes not kneeling for the national anthem, which is a signifier of a belief that I personally disagree with. Therefore, I expect others to accept the people who I personally agree with (or am sympathetic towards) who refuse to wear masks as a signifier of their belief.” It reeks of a cultural aggrievement that demands an eye for an eye. As Cory pointed out, though, wearing a mask is more than a cultural signifier, but one would have to believe in the efficacy of masks to acknowledge that. Nobody is physically harmed by seeing an athlete kneel during the national anthem, but over half a million people have died from Covid-19 in this country, and it’s been proven over and over that wearing masks significantly decreases the risk of contracting it. There is no actual equivalency to be drawn between the two actions, unless you’re only interested in their perceived value to your “culture.”
On the flip side, I wonder how Schatz would feel if he were at his local grocery store and saw someone with a mask on being surrounded by anti-maskers yelling, “Take it off!” Would he still complain about intimidation? Would he put a mask on and lead that person out of the store in solidarity? I can’t claim to know the answers to these questions for sure, but I am certain that he wouldn’t feel compelled to write his local paper and bemoan a first amendment violation.
Mr. Shatz is a whiny, sniveling poser. He and the rest of the crowd of snivelers are not interested in freedom. They are interested in controlling people by demanding everyone bow down to their idea of what freedom is. I mean, really, equating kneeling during the national anthem and breathing a deadly virus on someone else shows how ridiculous Mr. Shatz is.
Such are the whining cavemen with whom I share a community. Such are the neighbors who put my family’s life, not to mention the Constitution, at risk daily.
Mr. H may have started a new fan club for Mr. Novstrup. Or both of the Novstrups, even. The Conservatives with Common Sense may be talked into a stipend payment for the “Knockers for Novstrup” group. Apply next Sunday at breakfast.
Grudz, I welcome your genuine exercise of core political expression. Please send us photos of yourself and your followers strolling down the street, shirts off, chests bared, slogans scrawled nipple to nipple in favor of the Novstrup of your choosing.
But keep your shirts handy; the First Amendment won’t get you into Tally’s with your chestal regions exposed.
You know its simple, if anyone in your family dies because of these simpletons just liberate them.
If you are so concerned about the unmasked women at the Cracker Barrel, you will have a time of it if you run down to the Barnett Center for the State B Boys Basketball tournament this weekend! Why the double standard by NSU?
If I recall correctly, SDHSAA, as host fo the tournament, is in charge of enforcement.
Wrong Cory. NSU is responsible for any and all activities happening on the campus. Problem is President Tim Downs is a coward. He attacked these maskless women because he knew he could get away with it. The maskless crowds at the state Bs had little Timmy Downs cowering in his corner. You should be outraged. According to you and most of the comments this was a very dangerous health situation. Can’t have it both ways Cory.