Ignoring authority

Last night, my wife and I went out with her parents and brother. We went to the town square in Ocala. We dined in a Cajun restaurant and then watched the Christmas tree lightning. After her parents left to go home, we stopped to have a couple of drinks with her brother at a patio bar called "Bank Street." 

We were there for an hour or so, and I used the opportunity to do some people watching. There were well over 150 people in this bar, and while we were there, I saw three (yes, three) of them with masks on. One of those three only had the mask dangling from one ear. Otherwise, it was a normal Friday night meeting place: people were dancing, mingling, and generally enjoying the evening. 

A nearby park had a large screen set up, and there were perhaps a dozen or so families watching "A Muppet Christmas Carol," as a Harley riding Santa Claus posed for pictures with women in their 40s and 50s, without a mask in sight. As we walked through the square to return to our car, I noticed a large gathering of people on a second floor terrace bar. There were perhaps 100 or so people watching a televised football game. There were artists set up in the town square, selling their wares. In all, I saw several hundreds of people, and less than a quarter of them were wearing masks. 

It seems that many people in middle America are doing what Americans do best- ignoring "authority." Which we should ALL be doing.