On Friday I was traveling to Minnesota for a weekend getaway with some dudes. Just some dudes, hangin' & drinking horchata. No big deal.
Three of us were on the same flight, but only two of us were seated together, with a gentleman named William sitting where the third of our party should have been. I must admit, William was more entertaining than anyone in our party.
Wearing sandals, shorts, a backward hat, and a loose-fitting button-up shirt, William was not a fan of the mask mandate and made fast friends with me on this subject. He was sitting in the window seat, me in the middle, and could tell I did not want to be wearing a mask.
"It's theater," he said and needed to say no more. Wearing one of those free white and blue ones that accordions out, he was waiting to get a drink for an excuse to take it off. As was I. When he pulled the mask down to tell me about his adventures the last few times flying, a flight attendant approached. Now let's set the record straight: I'm very aware that people who've worked through all the ridiculous rules of the last 18 months are worthy of admiration, and I try to give them the benefit of the doubt on all issues that seem stress-related. But this woman was just being rude to William from minute one.
She snapped at him before we left the runway, to the effect of, "Listen, if you think we can't turn this plane around and kick you off, you've got another thing coming, because we're not even in the air yet and I will call security if I find you refusing to comply with our mask rules and causing problems."
Whoa, lady! What the heck? I'm sitting right next to this guy, watching his every move, and he did absolutely nothing to warrant that dress down.
He was pretty pissed off but did not say or do anything disrespectful. We got our water, pulled our masks down, and she walked by once to tell him not to keep it down too long (even though I was doing the exact same thing). Near the end of the flight, she handed him the violation in the picture. Yes, that's an actual picture I took of the violation note he was given.
William told me he flies for his job all the time, and he thinks he was flagged at some point in the past because now he gets doubly and triply checked getting onto Delta planes, and eyeballed while he's on them.
And while I can't vouch for anything he did outside of the flight I was on, it's noteworthy to view the violations in the picture, simply because he did not break a single one of them.
So by whose authority was he in trouble? If the airline decided they didn't like him, fine. That sucks, but they're a company and they can do that. But if it's federal law, that's another thing. The note says "Federal Regulation Violation."
I don't know what happened to William once we left the plane, but there was an Air Marshall or Enforcement Somebody waiting when we walked off, presumably for him. I hope he didn't comply because he was fully in the right. There is literally nothing on that sheet involving masks, and his behavior did not come close to warranting the violation.
But if enough people say it, or go along with it, then suddenly it doesn't need to be "real" law, does it? Just ask Joe Biden. When you're the President, you can speak from your balcony about a mask mandate, and everyone will comply. Even though it's been nearly 2 months and there is, again, NOTHING written on the subject, be it bill, executive order, or even through OSHA. There's NOTHING. Just a press release. But get enough people on board, and you don't need "real" laws. You can make up whatever you want, and our court system, which is supposed to follow the letter of the law, will turn a blind eye because of "unprecedented times." Which is code for, "whatever everybody's doing," instead of "actual laws."
There's a check and balance set up in this country for a reason. Never again can we let an emergency situation flout that balance.
Ryan Wiggins is the author of the extremely serious and not funny robot novel, The Life of Human, and is a writer and producer of television shows. He is the host of Wiggins America on 97.1 FM Talk in St. Louis.