End Unconstitutional Mask Mandates in Presidio and Brewster Counties

Dear Mayor Manuel Baeza, Marfa City Council Members, Presidio County Judge Cinderella Guevara, Mayor Andres Ramos, Alpine City Council Members, and Brewster County Judge Eleazar Cano,

We, the undersigned, greatly appreciate your consideration on the mask mandates which you recently felt compelled to announce for all Presidio and Brewster County businesses.

We understand that this announcement was recently reinforced by Governor Greg Abbott’s own mandate. However, his actions are wrong, and set an inappropriate precedence for the elected officials beneath him. No level of government in this country should be forcing these regulations on small business owners and their customers. It is not Constitutional, and utterly violates our rights and freedoms as American citizens. Alpine’s peaceful protest was rightfully honored despite the threats of the current situation, and all we request is the same respect to exercise our own, individual, Constitutional rights.

Officials using a technicality and fear of punishment as incentive for compliance, in order to dictate to the people what they can and cannot do, is a practice we might expect of other parts of the world. We certainly did not, however, expect to encounter such a situation in the United States of America and by those who choose to represent it. As the Justices of the Supreme Court recently pointed out, “the Constitution is not suspended when the government declares a state of disaster.”

Please consider the following:
According to the CDC’s Laboratory-Confirmed COVID-19-Associated Hospitalizations only 0.1% (zero point one percent) of all confirmed cases are hospitalized. This includes people who were hospitalized for other medical ailments, and their test results indicated them to have COVID19 at the time, regardless of whether they were symptomatic or not.

The shut-downs were not intended to prevent people from ever encountering the virus. They were simply meant to “flatten the curve,” to ensure that hospitals were not overrun by patients requiring care due to the illness. Our local hospitals are not currently, have never been, and are not expected to be, near capacity. If re-opening the economy for weeks did not overrun the hospital, it certainly will not as a result of declining to wear facial coverings which are medically ineffective at preventing inhalation of viral aerosols.

The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration states that cloth facial coverings “are not considered personal protective equipment (PPE)... are not appropriate substitutes for PPE such as respirators... and will not protect the wearer against airborne transmissible infectious agents.” Furthermore, Dr. Anthony Fauci himself explained the following in a recent interview: “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people “feel” a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing this perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences - people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.”

Based on the CDC’s data, this virus will not come remotely near the leading causes of mortality in this country. Last year alone, while not contagious ailments, 655,381 people died of heart disease, and 599,274 passed from cancer. As of July 10th, 2020, there have been 3,106,931 positive cases of COVID19 in the United States, and 132,855 COVID-related deaths. Both numbers continue to be inflated due to a number of causes: ranging from monetary incentive for hospitals to report a COVID19 patient, to the questionable practice of combining “probable” cases with laboratory-confirmed cases, among others. Although the COVID19 infection rates are rising - due to an increase in testing availability and participation, as well as mass gatherings - the death rate is decreasing. Without a drastic increase in these deaths, The Pandemic will soon cease entirely to qualify as such.

The CDC has further reported that for 93% of all deaths, death was categorized under comorbidity causes. Comorbidity refers to an additional health condition, illness, or injury, that occurred in conjunction with COVID19. In many cases, the virus was simply incidental to another cause of death, leaving only 7% due to the virus alone. It should also be noted that a staggering 43% of all COVID19 deaths have not occurred in the general public, but, rather, in nursing home facilities.

Unnecessarily restricting and panicking the people of a constitutional republic for fear of this illness is far more perilous to our rights and quality of life than it is beneficial to our health. While, “you must wear a mask, or else,” seems a small matter to many, please remember: it was only 75 years ago, that 60-85 million people lost their lives to fascism in World War II. These people fought, suffered, and died for basic freedoms, which were stripped away by “small” matters such as these - for their safety - until human rights were reduced into nothing. With respect to the dead, we do not take for granted these small concessions.

We understand that COVID19 is very serious to the elderly, those with underlying health conditions, and people with immune system disorders. Our prayers for health and safety go out to all the vulnerable and hope that they take all necessary measures to protect themselves. We pray for strength for the people battling it, and comfort for the families who have lost loved ones due to this illness and ones like it. We want this virus to pass as much as anyone else, but also recognize that risks are the unfortunate necessity of living.

This virus is not going away until herd immunity of the unsusceptible is achieved, regardless of how long we shelter in place, social distance, wear masks, accept “the new normal,” and wish it away. Our health is our personal choice and responsibility, and we take that responsibility for ourselves and our family. We fully encourage and respect your decisions to do what makes you feel safe, but, please, do not force your personal decisions upon the citizens of this country.

Other counties have chosen to stand up against these infringements entirely, and while we would be overjoyed to see you do the same, we understand that that is an unlikely expectation. We respectfully request that you refrain from issuing a continuation of this unconstitutional and unnecessary order, and choose instead to opt-out of the governor’s mandate at the earliest point in which your respective counties qualify to do so (i.e. 20 or fewer active cases), as 78 other Texas counties have already done.

Respectfully,

Concerned Citizens of the Big Bend

“They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty, nor safety.” - Benjamin Franklin, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin