For the first eleven days of September, Hubby and I drove from our home in Washington State to South Dakota and back.  We went through the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota.

The State of Washington has a state-wide “mask mandate”, requiring all open businesses to require all their customers who go inside their establishments to wear a “face covering”.  Effectively, this deputizes all state businesses as enforcers of the Mask Mandate.  A business who allows non-mask-wearing individuals into their premises can lose its license if the state deems it at fault.  No business wants to risk losing its license, so the mandate is fairly well-enforced, everywhere in the state.  Highway rest areas in Washington have signs on the doors of the bathrooms stating that masks are required (rarely or never enforced).  This is manifestly unconstitutional, but has never been challenged in our state.

It was very refreshing, in all the other states we visited, to find either NO mask rules at all (WY, SD, ND, ID), or rules that were not enforced (MT).  We stayed at motels everywhere, of our favorite brand; the Hotel Corporate Office had a mask rule, but I never obeyed it anywhere, even in Montana, and was never challenged.

Once we got to South Dakota, there were never any rules posted.  We went to restaurants for lunch and dinner with our group of up to 14 members, and no one wore a mask, other than the restaurant employees.  Freedom!  We found some stores that required masks inside, and we did comply when visiting Safeway and Walmart stores.  But it was such a relief not to have to worry about where my mask was, and if I would need one.  Many of our members went to the Sturgis Mustang Rally, and no masks were found there.

I can’t believe how wonderful it was, to go through a state and actually be able to see the faces of their people.  Everywhere we went, we saw people wearing masks, and people not wearing masks. It was their choice, not the State’s rule.  Big companies are within their rights to require masks of their customers, but States are way outside theirs to demand all residents wear masks whenever indoors.  As for me, I have always prided myself on being liberated, and incendiary.  I am willing to take my chances on being exposed to the Evil Wuhan Coronavirus (as did our 84-year-old friend we visited in Montana, who did not wear a mask or ask that we wear them).

If I get infected by the virus, then so be it.  If I get very sick, it’s on me.  And if I die of the infection, I can be comforted by the fact that I lived, and died, a Free Person, not cowering under my bed in fear.

Freedom!  It’s a wonderful thing!