Lifes most persistent and urgent question is this: what are you doing for others?

--The Rev. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.

Its just a mask and its just 6 feet.

Thats what Im having trouble understanding, as I watch the country I love fall further and further into the black hole of a virus, spreading like wildfire, while a large percentage of my fellow citizens still refuse to either don that mask or stay 6 feet distant.

Its just a mask and its just 6 feet.

And so, on the day I write this, about four months after our nation first woke up to the threat of this once-in-a-century pandemic, Im sad. Sad at the fact the United States recorded an unprecedented 57,789 new cases of the coronavirus just yesterday, July 12. Thats the highest number of infected folks weve ever faced into in a single day. Multiply that out by a month and thats a possible worst case scenario of 1.7 million new sick folks. Divide that by a conservative infection fatality rate of .5 percent (50 deaths for every 1,000 infected) and that means by mid-August we could be seeing upwards of 10,000 new deaths, on top of the 135,000 who have already died. To put that into perspective: thats as if the city of Cambridge, Mass., or Springfield, Mass., were wiped out overnight. Every last man, woman and child.

Its just a mask and its just 6 feet.

And yet it took our President until this past weekend to actually be photographed wearing a mask in public. Why his reluctance? Doesnt fit into his self-inflated oversized ego? Or his insistence at various times that COVID is overblown, or a plot by the Democrats to defeat him, or a weaponized virus created in some secret Chinese labs to destroy America? And now we are hearing of a coordinated effort on the part of this administration, to contradict and even discredit the nations highest and best scientific civil servant, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Words and actions from a leader have consequences. These can either inspire a people to step up and unite and do their part for a greater good like public health (thank you, Governor Baker); or these can tear a country apart, sabotage any sense that as Americans we are all in this together. No thank you, Mr. President.

Its just a mask and its just 6 feet.

Makes me wonder what might happen if tomorrow, the United States faced an actual war, a real threat from an outside enemy, that called for the mustering of all of us, to do our parts, to unite, to be as one nation, ready to make sacrifices for a common good. Could we meet that test, now, in 2020, given our fractured and piecemeal response as a country to COVID-19? Do we still have within our civic DNA the willingness to sacrifice, or would too many of us balk? Not my fight! You are not taking away my right to do nothing! Have we as a people just spent so much time on the couch, watching Netflix, that we could not even be bothered to get up and do something, do anything, to help our nation!?

Its just a mask and its just 6 feet.

I want to believe, I need to believe, that somehow we will pull it together as a country. Make what is really a tiny sacrifice of discomfort, to just wear a mask and to just stay 72 inches away from others, and all to ensure that the least among us wont get sick, wont die. Why is this so hard for so many? Why do some folk actually think this is a partisan request, somehow tied up in our political fights? Does anyone think COVID cares if we are a Democrat or a Republican? I just dont get it. Why is this request twisted by some into the absurd idea that by actually following these public health mandates, we are somehow giving up our civil liberties? Are you serious? Is it really all that hard?

Its just a mask and its just 6 feet, people!!

Makes me thank God that I live in Massachusetts, that though our track record on wearing a mask and physically distancing is far from perfect, still, weve done a good job of flattening the curve and preparing for the worst and caring for each other as citizens and neighbors and friends.

And all that has taken is this: wise and prudent governmental leadership. A shared sense that yes, we are all in this together, and what I do or do not do: this can help or hurt another. And a mutual commitment to walk with each other, through the best and the worst, of these strange and amazing days.

Wear a mask. Stay 6 feet apart. Repeat, until a vaccine is discovered and distributed.

Now that isnt so hard, is it?

The Rev. John F. Hudson is senior pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn (pilgrimsherborn.org). If you have a word or idea youd like defined in a future column or have comments, please send them to pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org or in care of The Press (Dover-Sherborn@wickedlocal.com).

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Spiritually Speaking: Wear the mask and keep your distance - Wicked Local Dedham