There is an outrageous unfairness that America’s San Francisco Mayor London Breed is facing: criticism for violating her own Covid-19 mask rules.
The mayor was caught dancing at a nightclub, despite her own rule that unless one is eating or drinking, one must wear a mask to prevent others from catching your COVID infection, if you have one.
The mask rule is quite serious, as San Francisco has a system of vaccine passports that is enforced at the very club at which Breed was a customer.
Why should the mayor be criticized? She explained in an interview: “I was feeling “the spirit,” and I wasn’t thinking about a mask…we don’t need the “Fun Police” to come in and micromanage and tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing,”
A perfectly reasonable explanation. Most people do not remember all the rules they set, especially when “the spirit” hits them.
Moreover, the “Fun Police,” who lack international accreditation, has no power over people stalked by “the spirit,” stalking which, as in the case of Ms. Breed, causes people to involuntarily dance.
How important is it to let “the spirit” supersede one’s dedication to a law, even a law supported by the lawbreaker for others?
Well, the answer is found in Nat King Cole’s rendition of “Every Time I feel the Spirit:”
Down in the valley, when I feel weak
It’s when the devil, usually speaks
Because he’s crafty, and full of lies
I need the Spirit to keep me wise.
So what was Mayor Breed to do, give in to the devil?
Absolutely not!
So when do political principals break important rules?
When and only when they hear “the spirit.”
If they violate the law and did not hear the spirit, they should be arrested.
All Americans and Anglophiles should support Mayor London Breed, named, no doubt, for her cosmopolitan predilections.
Case closed.
Richard E.Vatz is Towson Distinguished Professor at Towson University
