As the world knows, the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the States of North and South Dakota particularly hard with the largest number of cases per capita in the world. It is well established that the reason for this is because leaders of these states have refused to take steps to limit public gatherings and requiring the wearing of masks. As a result, city commissions in these states have visited these issues as their hospitals are overwhelmed with Covid cases and people in these sparely populated states are dying are dying because of Covid in increasingly large numbers.
On November 23, 2020 the City Commission of Yankton, the city I live in met to discuss the option of establishing an enforceable ordinance requiring the wearing of masks in public. That option was defeated and instead it was replaced with an ordinance to educate people.
What prompted me to write the City Commission was that our Chief of Police argued against an ordinance because it would be difficult to enforce and people will do what they want to do.
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November 24, 2020
Dear City Commissioners,
It is out of a sense of great disappointment and alarm that I am compelled to address the recent decision to not implement an enforceable ordinance requiring the use of masks during this pandemic.
With that said, I am grateful to those commissioners who demonstrated their care and concern for the citizens of our city and for having the courage to express those concerns in what unfortunately has been turned into a polarizing issue. To those on the Commission who decided to side-step the obvious and simplest means for protecting the citizens of this city, I strongly encourage you to be courageous, to do the right thing, and to revisit this issue again in order to pass an enforceable ordinance requiring the use of masks unanimously. There is strength in numbers, and with a united commission, the message to be responsible will be firm and resolute.
Nobody should have to explain the reasons for doing so. It’s embarrassing to do so because the facts and the numbers are there that should you give you all the reason for implementing, at the very least, an enforceable ordinance requiring masks be worn in public. Since reason appears to have been side-stepped for what can only be understood as a fear of public backlash, I feel a responsibility to attempt to place the reasons for doing so back at center stage.
I also feel a need to remind those in governance of the Preamble to our nation’s Constitution which established why rules and laws are written:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity… .
Every state constitution contains similar language, and almost all of those serving in a local, state, and governmental roles take an oath to not only support this language, but defend it at all costs, even when it will result in public backlash. I shouldn’t have to highlight something as basic and as straightforward as promoting the general welfare and pointing out its applicability in dealing with a global pandemic. Such promotion is not done by suggestion but by ordinance, by the establishment of enforceable legal parameters to accomplish that end.
The citizens of Yankton are currently living in a state that has the highest number of Covid cases per capita in the United States, which also means we have the highest number of cases per capita in the world. With those numbers front and center on the world stage, what permits any of us to avoid promoting the general welfare of our citizens by refusing to create an enforceable ordinance that so easily could accomplish that end?
One of the arguments against an ordinance is that it would be unenforceable because it would have no teeth and people would ignore it and do what they want; that it is better to educate people and rely on peoples’ personal sense of responsibility than to establish such an ordinance.
To that argument I offer the following;
- People are already informed every day by news media, public service announcements, and the increasing number of tragic personal stories from those living in this area. If people don’t act informed it is more than likely due to their being willfully ignorant of the information that abounds regarding this pandemic. To date, information has done little to decrease the number of cases or change personal opinion and increase personal responsibility in our state. Throwing more verbiage at it will do nothing to convince the willfully ignorant. Enforceable ordinances will. What has proven to be effective world-wide in changing people’s attitudes is when there is leadership demonstrating responsibility and people are given the requirement to follow that example.
- Law, in the form of an ordinance, is the biggest tool a constitutional government possesses which enables it to educate its citizenry about the need to be responsible because it will contain the language and reason for its existence, and it can be enforced if needed.
- An ordinance will take the pressure of decision-making off private businesses and other private entities that are open to the public to do so in order to protect their employees and patrons. It will alleviate the risk of such entities facing the fallout they may experience by people who are against wearing masks; especially, in the case of the small, independent, and locally-owned businesses.
- An enforceable ordinance will help prevent public events from becoming super-spreading events.
When this pandemic arrived in the U.S. back in March, my daughter, who lives in Jersey City, NJ and works in lower Manhattan, NYC was quarantined in place for several months. At that time, people only went out of their home to buy groceries or to address other necessities. During that time, Jersey City police were out on the streets in their patrol cars enforcing (educating) that City’s ordinances with regard to wearing masks and social distancing. My daughter informed me that if more than two people were walking within six feet of each other or not wearing masks, the police were on their speakers telling them to separate and put on a mask and people did. They didn’t go about arresting people, but just having the police educate and verbally enforce such ordinances made a huge difference.
As a result of such measures, the pandemic came under control at that time. Such measures work. If an ordinance brought control to a city that has a population exceeding a quarter of a million people, in a metropolitan area, roughly the size of the southeastern portion of SD, with a population of over 20 million people, what makes one think an ordinance requiring wearing masks would not work here?
What should be insulting and embarrassing to all is the romantic notion that we South Dakotans are untamable, law-defying “cowboys.” Is that where we’re at? Is being law-defying cowboys the values we aspire to? Since when has the fear of people ignoring the law become the reason for not establishing laws? Is that the best the commission can come up with for not taking the simplest enforceable measure possible to do address something that is taking the lives of our family members, friends, and neighbors?
People are polarized because there is no guidance, no strong leadership, and no laws defining a safe path forward. As city commissioners, you can do what our state leaders are too cowardly to do. You can do what other city commissions in this state have done and provide an ordinance that strengthens people’s resolve to be personally responsible. Making responsibility a choice is nothing more than a dereliction of your duty to protect the citizens in your purview.
This pandemic is not going away any time soon. A vaccine will hopefully lessen its impact, but there is not guarantee that it will do so until it is widely administered and, even then, we won’t know if it will be as effective as it is hoped to be. In the meantime, people will continue to suffer and die. In my opinion, the proposed enforceable ordinance does not go far enough. It needs to address gathering sizes; especially, during the coming winter months. The defeated enforceable ordinance, however, was a step in right direction. It needs to be revisited and enacted.
I know of individuals with health concerns in our community who do not feel safe and protected enough to venture out because so many people continue to be irresponsible. I know of some very cautious individuals in Yankton who contacted this virus because they ended up in a place where people were not being responsible and were not taking this virus seriously.
I implore you to take to take this virus seriously and demonstrate the responsibility you have as city commissioners to effectively address it by unanimously passing an enforceable city ordinance that serves to protect all of us.
Sincerely,
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Until nest time, stay faithful.
Norm
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