Recently , the North Carolina nation senate passed a bill that would banish wearing medical masks in public in the State Department , even for the most vulnerable residents .
Recently, the North Carolina state senatepasseda bill that would ban wearing medical masks in public in the state, even for the most vulnerable residents.
Proponents of the bill hope to crack down on protestors calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, but critics fear that the mask ban could do a lot more harm than good.
Republican flier supporter Buck Newton said the bill is n’t mean to " prosecute granny for wear down a mask in the Walmart . " But as thetraumatic and harmful outcomes of miscarriage bansin Department of State like Florida and Texas have shown , when the law of nature is not denotative enough about what is give up , it can be used as a cudgel against the most vulnerable among us .
Caroline Hardin is a 33-year-old North Carolina resident who’s been using her platform to raise awareness about the potential harms of this bill. She’s a wife and mother who has an autoimmune condition, and she’s very worried about how a ban on medical masks could affect her and her family. She told BuzzFeed, “For me, what that would do, it would effectively imprison me inside my home, being not able to go anywhere, and that’s literally impossible because that would include doctors' offices, pharmacies, anything that I personally would have to go to rather than having things delivered.”
Hardin also worries how the ban might be unfairly applied to others in her community, especially to people of color. “I immediately became concerned about the overarching implications of that with how crimes, in general, are prosecuted unevenly across the state depending on different communities, different neighborhoods, law enforcement’s mood that day… The wording of this bill allowed it to be so vague that lawmakers could claim ‘it’s going to be fine,’ but it was vague enough to be used as a blunt instrument of inflicting violence on communities. And that to me, was completely unconscionable.”
Disability Department of Justice and racial jurist are inextricably intertwine and this threatens both.#disabilitytiktok
Some commenters pointed out that they’re already being harassed for taking necessary precautions and wearing masks.
And others mentioned that similar laws are under consideration in other states. If such a law has been proposed in your state, Hardin recommends calling on your representatives to codify the right to wear a medical mask to protect your health and the health of others.
On YouTube, Hardin interviewed North Carolina State Senator Sydney Batch, who has been a vocal opponent of the bill and has worked to have amendments added that would protect peoples' right to wear a mask for health reasons. Senator Batch explained that the bill wouldn’t just lead to harsher sentences for people who commit crimes while wearing a mask. She said, “What the bill now does is it criminalizes anyone with a class one misdemeanor for wearing a mask in public, and it does not give an exception at all to any health conditions.”
Senator Batch went on to say , " My Republican colleagues will say , ' Well , you know , we believe in vulgar good sense and the common sense of the police and other individuals so that they wo n’t just get somebody that has a mask , ' but at the end of the day , it is in fact a criminal offense .
So citizenry have to choose whether or not they ’re going to wear a masquerade party in public to protect themselves or someone else and potentially get shoot down if they were stop by the police or say by a store owner , ' If you do n’t take your masquerade off in my store , I ’m going to call the police . ' So there ’s a lot of other implication . "
As a cancer survivor, Senator Batch has made it clear that her opposition to this bill is deeply personal. She told BuzzFeed, “Some people say that we’re fear-mongering. And what I would tell you is that for someone who’s been immunocompromised in the past and had to wear masks, and my children and my husband wear masks to protect me, you know, I’m not fear-mongering. It’s a genuine concern, right? Somebody can actually die and get very ill if they are not able to protect themselves, if they’re immunocompromised, etc. This is a bipartisan concern we’ve heard from all of our constituents, Republican and Democrat alike.”
Despite her worry over this bill, Hardin says she loves living in North Carolina, which she describes as “one of the most beautiful places in the world” despite the bad rep that the South gets in other parts of the country. “I’ve grown up in the South, and so I’ve seen all of the pros and cons of living here. I do like how Southern culture at its root is supposed to be kind, and I do encounter a lot of kindness.”
Finally, Hardin hopes that non-disabled people will also oppose this bill and join in the fight. She says, “Everybody’s one incident away from joining the disability community; you either grow old enough to get a disability or you die. Those are the only two options. So you’re going to be affected by this bill.”
Caroline Hardin / Viayoutube.comSenator Batch went on to say, “My Republican colleagues will say, ‘Well, you know, we believe in common sense and the common sense of the police and other individuals so that they won’t just arrest somebody that has a mask,’ but at the end of the day, it is in fact a criminal offense.So people have to choose whether or not they’re going to wear a mask in public to protect themselves or someone else and potentially get charged if they were stopped by the police or told by a store owner, ‘If you don’t take your mask off in my store, I’m going to call the police.’ So there’s a lot of other implications."
