Confrontation
Title
Confrontation
Date
6/20/2020
Creator
Anonymous
Contributor
CSU student
Text
20 June 2020
The sign has been up for a week at Walmart and today is the day they would start requiring masks. "Good," I think to myself, "if the governor of Georgia isn't going to make a mandate, at least the businesses are." I think it's a good idea, the science has shown it is a good idea, but I still felt an overwhelming anxiety going to Walmart today. How would people react? Would they fall in line? If not for the right reasons, at least because it is mandatory?
As I walked up to Walmart on Victory Drive, I saw a young girl, probably in her early twenties, standing under a canopy. It was at least 95 degrees out, "What a miserable job" I thought to myself. I am not a confrontational person so with masks having become more of a political stance than a health protector, I worried how people would react to Walmart's new rule. As I looked around, I saw many people with masks coming and going from the store which eased my mind quite a bit.
Suddenly, I hear an older man scream an expletive at that poor Walmart employee before storming off back into the parking lot, he didn't have a mask and wouldn't be allowed in the store. This was the reason for the anxiety. It wasn't directed toward me but my heart hurt for that employee. The anxiety I have been feeling stems from acknowledging that the issues surrounding Coronavirus are being mishandled by the media and politicians, why is the health of our most vulnerable citizens now political? Even here in Columbus, a city I have grown to adore, we are experiencing a harmful division, caused by a simple piece of cloth.
The tensions in the community feel as if they're always about to boil over and today, in this short confrontation, it did. This shouldn't be a time of division it should be a time in which we come together as a community. These essential workers in our area are unfairly receiving the outbursts of frustration from customers. Not only is it not fair, it makes me not want to be in public, I am witnessing how truly awful people will treat each other because they themselves are anxious, stressed, and confused.
The sign has been up for a week at Walmart and today is the day they would start requiring masks. "Good," I think to myself, "if the governor of Georgia isn't going to make a mandate, at least the businesses are." I think it's a good idea, the science has shown it is a good idea, but I still felt an overwhelming anxiety going to Walmart today. How would people react? Would they fall in line? If not for the right reasons, at least because it is mandatory?
As I walked up to Walmart on Victory Drive, I saw a young girl, probably in her early twenties, standing under a canopy. It was at least 95 degrees out, "What a miserable job" I thought to myself. I am not a confrontational person so with masks having become more of a political stance than a health protector, I worried how people would react to Walmart's new rule. As I looked around, I saw many people with masks coming and going from the store which eased my mind quite a bit.
Suddenly, I hear an older man scream an expletive at that poor Walmart employee before storming off back into the parking lot, he didn't have a mask and wouldn't be allowed in the store. This was the reason for the anxiety. It wasn't directed toward me but my heart hurt for that employee. The anxiety I have been feeling stems from acknowledging that the issues surrounding Coronavirus are being mishandled by the media and politicians, why is the health of our most vulnerable citizens now political? Even here in Columbus, a city I have grown to adore, we are experiencing a harmful division, caused by a simple piece of cloth.
The tensions in the community feel as if they're always about to boil over and today, in this short confrontation, it did. This shouldn't be a time of division it should be a time in which we come together as a community. These essential workers in our area are unfairly receiving the outbursts of frustration from customers. Not only is it not fair, it makes me not want to be in public, I am witnessing how truly awful people will treat each other because they themselves are anxious, stressed, and confused.
Citation
Anonymous, “Confrontation,” Columbus State University Archives and Special Collections , accessed November 21, 2024, http://digitalarchives.columbusstate.edu/items/show/4049.