Fort Mill resident Nadia Wright sent this letter to the Fort Mill Sun and asked us to share it as an open letter to the Town. Here it is:
Fort Mill Mayor Guynn Savage and Fort Mill Council Members:
I am reaching out as a resident of Fort Mill. I have lived here since 2017.
Until recently, I have loved living here. The schools were good, and the area seemed to be well suited to a family of transplants from Ohio.
That was until your office and/or town council imposed the mandatory mask ordinance on the town’s citizenry. Not only does it encroach upon my rights to protect myself and my family as I see fit, it is also an egregiously heavy-handed approach for an event that has been largely overblown.
As a result, you’ve opened the door for businesses to discriminate against those who elect not to (or cannot) wear a mask by giving them the green light to refuse service to those of us who (rightfully) believe this is a matter of choice rather than a “requirement” to be imposed upon us via the use of mandates/ordinances.
Retailers should not insinuate themselves into the foray of requiring their customers to take part in something that is (and should be) a matter of choice.
Business should be just that: business.
If there are customers who prefer to wear masks for their own perceived safety, so be it.
If the company feels the need to require their own employees to do the same — it still delves into the realm of excessive overreach, but at least they’re paying their employees to comply.
Once a business crosses the line into mandating their customers/clients to do the same, they’re jeopardizing their revenue at best — and sanctioning a new version of discrimination at worst.
By refusing service to those that do not believe they should be required to participate in an activity they feel is unnecessary for their own personal health and/or safety, businesses unfairly ostracize and alienate PAYING CUSTOMERS.
THIS IS WRONG.
Businesses need to back away from this course of action and stick to what they’re there for: the paying customer. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I am not the only person to believe this is the case. I’ve spoken with many people – business owners and otherwise- that agree, but they are too afraid to stand up and say something for fear of public shaming, retaliation, and/or ridicule based on fearful people’s myopic point of view on this matter.
You are placating the general public’s irrational fears spurred by alarmist, doomsday rhetoric heard on the news on a daily basis. Case counts’ reliability is dubious, at best. You seem to be making emotional, broad stroke decisions in reaction to mass hysteria rather than by applying anything resembling critical thought. If you (and the public at large) would simply look at the actual numbers, you’d find the situation is not nearly as dire as we’ve been led to believe, and therefore, does not warrant the draconian initiatives you’ve put in place. The infection rate is less than 2% (actual 1.626%) STATEWIDE (as well as nationwide) and the survival rate of those actually infected is in the high 90%s (1.798% current mortality rate among “confirmed” cases). Here in York County, the infection rate (as of today) is infinitesimal (2,921) out of a population just shy of 281,000 (according to 2019 data): 1.04% — and only 25 deaths (0.86% of those infected).
LESS THAN 1% OF THE 1% of the county’s population infected have died!!!
In short: The numbers indicate that what you’re doing/what you’ve done makes no sense. It isn’t right, and it needs to end NOW.
High-risk groups need to take common sense measures to protect themselves. Those measures should not be forcibly extended to the rest of the population, nor should they be used as a firebrand for supposed human decency or a measure of one’s regard for others. Stop using manipulative guilt tactics to shame, bully, and OPPRESS people into complying with a paradigm they do not align with. It is not your place to impose your will on the rest of the population —especially when so few have actually been affected.
Given the high survival rate –even without a vaccine, those of us not cowering in our houses, or slinking around town in masks afraid of our own shadows should have the freedom to decide for ourselves what measures to take for our own health and safety. It is our right…which you have been infringing upon.
Stop using the guise of public safety to push measures that only serve to control the populace and fear-monger us into forced compliance. We should be keeping life as normal as possible…not making things harder for people who elect not to live in fear under the widespread “the sky is falling” mentality. Those who wish to live in that manner can – but the rest of us should not be held to that sort of distorted and disfigured “standard.” This is not — and should not be labeled as “the new normal.” That phrasing alone is indicative of deliberate social engineering, and it needs to stop.
PLEASE END these mandates! They are unreasonable and smack of excessive overreach.
Respectfully, Nadia Wright, Fort Mill Resident
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