I am an octogenarian who has gone 10 rounds with lung cancer and won. It cost me 20 percent of my lungs but I am cancer-free for over five years. I am also on oxygen full-time as a participation reward for smoking for 50 years. All of this tells me that I must be careful and take all possible steps to avoid contamination.

I resent being told that if I am concerned about contamination I should simply stay at home. What if I told the anti-mask group that if they are afraid of wearing a mask when in businesses and when social separation is not possible, that they should just stay home? I don’t think that would go over well at all.

As I understand it, all business open to the public are required to provide masks and require wearing them by all employees. I am quite willing to accept what I need to do to keep safe; that includes not shopping where employees are not masked and where social separation is not enforced.

I was not impressed by any of the rationale offered by council members in support of their votes against the recent mask proposal. While they are entitled to their opinions, I would hope that they would pay more attention to the public will, neighboring communities’ actions and not simply the noisy anti crowd. To vote against because it would place a burden on MCSO is ludicrous at best.

I appreciate this is an emotionally charged issue, and that everyone has the right to choose, but that right should stop at the end of another person’s nose. In closing, I will add that the vast amount of contradicting information from the media since the beginning of the “pandemic” has not helped.