Letters to the Editor: Read COVID-19 horror stories, then answer: Why aren't you wearing a mask?

Los Angeles Times Opinion
·1 min read
At the Farmers Market in Little Italy on Saturday, April 4, 2020, Stephen Clark from JR Organics helped Lori Vanderlinden select fresh produce while standing behind the tape. Grocery vendors are required to wear a face mask and customers could no longer hand select the produce for themselves.
Shoppers at a San Diego farmers' market in April. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

To the editor: To reinforce the importance of wearing masks, police officers and others authorized to enforce the California mask mandate should carry copies of the op-ed article by hospice chaplain Fran Chalin. When they encounter an unmasked person, they present a choice.

Either that person can read this piece from top to bottom — every painful word of it — and cogently answer the question, "So tell me, why aren't you wearing a mask?" or he or she could pay a hefty fine. If no cogent answer can be provided after reading Chalin's piece, the person should still pay a fine.

I also suggest that retail establishments print up copies of this piece and post them at their front door with a sign that says, "No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service, no exceptions."

Kay Virginia Webster, Agoura Hills