{"id":46828,"date":"2021-03-03T02:39:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T02:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=46828"},"modified":"2021-03-03T02:39:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T02:39:17","slug":"mask-wearers-unite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=46828","title":{"rendered":"Mask-wearers unite!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=COVID%20%23MAGA%20%23pandemic&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/pandemic-300x200-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-42193\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/pandemic-300x200-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By JOHN KANELIS<\/strong> \/ <a href=\"mailto:johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com\">johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s clear that I cannot possibly know whether what I am seeing on my social media network connotes a national trend.<\/p>\n<p>Still, I am heartened to see the reaction to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott&#8217;s announcement today that he is rescinding the mask mandate he ordered in 2020 to fight the COVID pandemic and that he is allowing businesses to open &#8220;100 percent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I am hearing from across the state that folks are going to continue wearing their masks, that they are going to keep their &#8220;social distance&#8221; from strangers and do not plan to frequent restaurants and bars.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott sounded strangely victorious today when he made his announcement in Lubbock. Sure, he said we shouldn&#8217;t let up. Then he touted immediately the declining infection and death rates in Texas. I am not sure which part of Abbott&#8217;s announcement drew the most attention.<\/p>\n<p>I am going to join my many social media contacts in declaring my own intention to keep wearing a mask; Lord knows I have enough of them. I also intend to keep my distance. I will slather sanitizer on my hands with abandon; I will wash &#8217;em with soap and water at home with annoying frequency.<\/p>\n<p>School district officials are talking, too, about resisting the governor&#8217;s call to reopen fully. They will continue to require students and teachers to mask up in classrooms; I am presuming the Allen Independent School District, where my granddaughter and her older brother attend school, will be among them.<\/p>\n<p>I just am going to say a prayer that Gov. Abbott hasn&#8217;t acted too hastily in his effort to put Texas back to work.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=COVID%20%23MAGA%20%23pandemic&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By JOHN KANELIS \/ johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com It&#8217;s clear that I cannot possibly know whether what I am seeing on my social media network connotes a national trend. Still, I am heartened to see the reaction to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott&#8217;s announcement today that he is rescinding the mask mandate he ordered in 2020 to fight the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=46828\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Mask-wearers unite!<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,18],"tags":[9423,2006,9261],"class_list":["post-46828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-medical-news","category-state-news","tag-covid","tag-greg-abbott","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46829,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46828\/revisions\/46829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}