As a Republican and a conservative, I am still amazed at the number of people who don’t wear masks. As a soon-to-be 77-year-old man with COPD, I am in a vulnerable class.

I too hate the economic toll that the shutdown has caused, but yesterday I met an unmasked, well-dressed lady with an oddly enough masked daughter as I was leaving the North Vassalboro Post Office. I asked her politely why she was not wearing a mask. “I don’t believe in it,” she replied. I said I was by and large a Donald Trump supporter as I assume she was, but I did believe in being careful. “You do?” she was surprised. Then I added that I had a friend who had contracted the coronavirus. She was doubly surprised. I hope I gave good witness.

To shut down an economy is a grave thing to do. Graver still is the prospect of needless, widespread death. That too will shut down the economy but in a still more tragic way. By the time of the election we will know whether the fall COVID-19 upsurge is real or not. Trump is gambling that any fall resurgence of the virus will not happen. I will carefully weigh evidence and weed out predictions as best I can derive from politically influenced and inflated analyses. I withhold judgement till then and will vote for whomever promises to keep me the healthiest.

I hope Trump’s gamble pays off but I will wait and see. Maybe it won’t resurface in September-October. Meanwhile I will wear my ask to protect you and the skeptical lady at the Post Office. I hope she will extend to me the same courtesy.

James P. Breslin

Winslow