To the editor:

The COVID-19 crisis has done a lot of harm, but I’ve also learned a lot from it. For example: I used to suspect that I was surrounded by people who didn’t care whether I lived or died, and now I know for sure.

Kate Martin’s Sept. 3 letter on mask wearing is a case in point. Public health experts have said a thousand times that wearing masks has less to do with protecting ourselves and more about protecting others. People know this; they just don’t care. If saving other people inconveniences them, other people are on their own, with a little “mouth-thong” mockery to boot.

I spent years hearing about “do unto others,” “love your neighbor as yourself,” and “whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do unto me,” but now that the rubber meets the road, none of it ever meant anything.

This was everyone’s chance to live their values, and it turned out their actual values were “I got mine.” Nobody in this town ever gets to talk to me about “pro-life” again; you don’t actually care.

Half the people in this country are vulnerable due to comorbidities. High blood pressure and obesity are risk factors. Do you not know anyone obese? Trust me, I’ve been driving around South County for a couple of years, and yes, you do.

All I ever expected from this community was basic concern for one another, and time and again during this pandemic all I have seen is snarky, defiant belligerence.

Jim Mroczkowski
Oakville