Dear Maskless America,

I have seen you sit on the floor of Costco. I have seen you knock over the displays at the grocery store. I have seen you charge store employees who make an hourly wage and now have to play the role of store security, too. What is wrong with you?

Have you forgotten what it’s like to think about the unseen? Do you also kick the shins of little children when no one is looking? No one is asking you to do a magnanimous task. We are simply asking you to put a little piece of cloth on your nose and mouth so that we can try to function in this new reality.

What we can’t see is now more dangerous than we can see. This virus is insidious. It hides in air conditioners. In frozen shrimp. In sneezes. In hair. And when it does get inside a body, it multiplies with such abandon that the SEM images are uncomfortable to look at. You can hardly believe that that many viruses can plague a simple human cell.

What we can’t see is the entitlement that you wear is literally killing others. Essential workers who must go to work to pay their rent. Bus drivers who have no choice but to transport. Your refusal to wear a mask flies in the face of so many who will most likely allow you to carry on your tantrum because they are tired of fighting. It takes every ounce just to live day-to-day.

What we can’t see is that the most susceptible, the immunocompromised, the elderly, must hideout for days, months, maybe a year to avoid your stealthy spray of pathogens, just so that you can buy your milk and eggs and yammer away openly saying, “This is America!”

But we can see you. We can see your mouth. We can see your nose. And in that, we see an intransigence. A refusal to accept that a new America will require us to cover these things up and find other ways to exert our independence. Denial is the first stage of grief. We get it. We hate it, too, but for God’s sake, please wear a damn mask.