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LETTERS: Mask up to protect lives – especially in stores

A word of thanks to the cashiers who risk their own health to serve us
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Editor:

A word of thanks to the cashiers who risk their own health to serve us at various shops on the Peninsula.

A trip to a local dollar store this week left me very frustrated. A sign on the door said clearly, “Masks required to shop inside and social distancing required.” Fair enough, as B.c. tops provinces now in positive testings.

Inside, clerks wore masks, some patrons wore masks, most did not.

Upon leaving the store, my cart got stuck. A kind (unmasked) lady held the door for me. I turned and reminded the mask-less shoppers that we need to protect those clerks who process thousands of customers daily.

Outside in the parking lot, one man called me a “f-ing idiot” and told me I should go back to the U.S.

My young grandchildren were upset over his language. Even more disappointing, an older, well-coiffed lady in a Lexus told me, with sarcasm, “I put my bra on today.”

I guess she’s referring to masks looking like bras?

I suggested she should leave the bra off and put a mask on. No humour in COVID.

How do you reason with these people? We think the U.S. is in bad shape. Bonnie Henry had the weather on her side to begin this pandemic. It rained – we stayed indoors. Our luck has run out.

Experts likened this pandemic to a war. In 1941 my father signed up for WWII. He returned home safely, but many did not. So many were maimed for life, physically or mentally.

If a young, 21-year-old man can risk his life for democracy, is it too much to ask people to wear and mask and social distance?

Please mask up to protect lives – especially in stores. Then the stores you love will stay open and the clerks can live long and healthy lives.

M. Field, Surrey