Letter to the Editor: Wear a mask

At the viewing of Bobby I was appalled at the people not wearing masks. What angered me most was these unmasked people came close to my 86 year-old father — actually in his face. Dad (and all our family) wore masks.

Dad has health issues that put him in a category of extreme high risk. The insensitivity broke my heart as I watched unmasked people putting my Father in harms way as his dead son lay next ho him.

Infections in Austin are doubling daily. I’m anxious about returning home.

As I’ve moved around Paragould visiting long lost relatives, I don’t see mask wearing practiced.

I wonder if people who don’t wear masks know why or how they are effective, mostly those who speak in media, or lash tirades at food service workers for asking them to wear a mask when entering their establishment.

Food service workers, grocery workers are providing help to Paragouldians while laboring in a most dangerous environment. A local taco shop reported a man, asked to wear a mask, accused the young cashier of being a Socialist. I wonder if he knows what that term means. It was a disgusting display of selfishness aimed at a young person trying to do their job and protect fellow employees and the public. They deserve respect and gratitude. Not uninformed selfish rants about personal freedoms

Mark Lashley

Austin, Texas