Stores that ignore COVID mask rules endanger everyone. Let's boycott them.

Boycott shops that don't enforce mask rules

Last week, I went into a sandwich shop masked. I am fully vaccinated and boosted and not at serious risk, but I wear my mask to protect others.

All the workers were masked, as were folks in line except one. She came up behind me within one foot. I politely asked if she would give me a little more space. She had a minor snit, but did step a few feet away.

When I was paying, I asked the manager why they don’t require masks like so many other restaurants and shops. He told me they are prohibited from requiring masks.

I mentioned that California has a mandate for masks in indoor facilities where people gather, but he insisted that they are prohibited from enforcing it.

I think establishments that have indoor gatherings and do not require masks send a message that they don’t care if folks are infected with COVID in their stores. That deserves boycotting from the rest of us.

I told the manager that I’ve been coming into their store for more than 20 years, but will not be back unless they require masks while we are still dealing with COVID. I hope others will do the same.

George Hanover, La Quinta

Columns on MLK's legacy were interesting reading

Thanks to The Desert Sun for printing the Jan. 17 Point/Counterpoint columns on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy. Both columns were instructive.

On the one hand, Richard Holt decries the race industry hustlers who profit from the continuing racial chaos in our country. On the other side, Barbara R. Arnwine and Daryl D. Jones point to the racist white vigilantes who murdered Ahmaud Arbery to demonstrate the continuing racist nature of America in 2020.

It seems to me that there will always be white racists who kill innocent Black people, just as there will be Black racists like Darrell Brooks Jr., who is charged with killing innocent white people by driving his car through a Christmas Parade. We should condemn them both.

But do they represent views of the entirety of this country? I do not think so.

A nation that will fight a civil war to — in part — free the slaves, pass historic civil rights legislation and elect a Black man to the highest office in the land twice is not systemically racist.

To be sure, we still have racial issues in America. Our collective goal ought to be to continue to address them to realize the dream Dr. King so eloquently envisioned.

Paul Forrest, La Quinta

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Businesses that ignore COVID mask rules endanger us all. Boycott them.