I support Leon County Mask Mandate

My political campaign is grounded in accountability and transparency, and I will never sacrifice those 2 pillars or stay on the sidelines to avoid tough situations or decisions. Our government at every level needs good, strong leadership.

I have a lot of very conservative and Libertarian friends and supporters who are outraged at the mask mandate. I understand completely. My personal beliefs mostly align with yours. If I was only responsible for myself, I would probably voice my outrage as well. I hate how bloated our government has become, and I hate that we are willing to give away our rights and liberties so easily these days. Out of six choices for County Commissioner, At-large, I am the candidate who most closely matches that belief system. I am the only candidate who will often stand up and fight for those values. Unfortunately we won't agree 100% of the time, and this is one of those times. I will remain transparent and accountable to you at all times, even when we disagree. I could lay low, but that would not be real leadership. I would not be proud of that and neither should you.

I want to be clear I supported and encouraged Kristin Dozier to enact this mandate. If I was on the Commission yesterday, I would have voted for it. I would hope my voice and leadership could have cut through all the chaos and clutter in that meeting. It should have been 20 minutes instead of 90. I'll discuss why in point #2 below. But, here are the 3 main reasons why I would have voted in favor of the mandate. I hope you'll understand.

1. Our community was divided and suffering, and we have enough of that already.

I have had customers come into both my stores and complain they would not shop there if people (employees and customers) were not ALL wearing masks. I have also had customers in the stores and online say they would not shop there if a mask was mandated. I've seen social media posts blasting some very good local businesses for not requiring masks, and I just wondered when it would happen to us. Business owners were in a lose-lose situation. Without guidance from community leadership, we were doomed to offend half our customers no matter what choice we made.

On top of that, we have a duty to protect our staff and their families. Wearing a mask doesn't protect them, it protects people from them. To protect them the customers have to wear the masks. If an infected person were to come in and infect our staff, it would mean people we care about could suffer, and it could mean our stores would be shutdown for 2 or more weeks. Most small businesses cannot take another one of those losses after everything that has already happened.

I have also seen loud arguments between people outside businesses such as Lowes and Walmart. It isn't healthy for our community to be so divided on such a simple issue. Nobody knows what the "right" thing to do is regarding masks,and many people are very scared. It doesn't matter what version of the news you follow or how real you believe the disease is or is not, we should be able to agree the fear itself is real. I've felt it. When I'm awake and working and busy, I ignore it. I can compartmentalize things, but I've woken up in the middle of the night worried that I didn't wash my hands after an encounter. Worried I didn't change my clothes before entering my parent's house or hugging my kids. I don't walk around in fear all day, but I can't avoid it or pretend it doesn't exist at all. For people who may be more predisposed to anxiety than I am, I feel for you. I understand. We should all understand that if fear is creeping into my subconscious, then it is probably affecting everyone at some level. The fear is real, and we have an easy way to ease some of it.

2. What our community needed was leadership and guidance to avoid those tense situations in businesses and between community members.

The debate didn't need to center around enforcement, and unfortunately the first version that was passed has now become a new source of confusion and friction even though it was eventually revised to something that made more sense. Thank you to Nick Maddox for that sensibility.

In my opinion, there will be no enforcement. I can't imagine someone calling the police over a mask issue, and I can't imagine the police responding if they do. Even if the police respond, the guilty party will probably be gone or in a mask before police arrive. If they aren't in a mask, they are undoubtedly going to say they meet one of the many exemptions, and they will be under no obligation to prove that exemption at the time. Realistically, enforcement is just not going to happen. We got what we needed which was a declaration and a uniform expectation. Businesses and community members can look to that regulation rather than arguing among each other. Hopefully much of the friction within our community can be alleviated by just that statement.

3. This is far from unprecedented, far from the most restrictive rule we have, and far from being the least necessary.

I made the comical comparison to wearing pants, but I was actually serious. There are far less serious risks associated with nudeness than with not wearing a mask. We are apparently ok with losing our liberties for that. If we are outraged over violations of our liberties, then we should start with the most senseless regulations. The mask serves an important purpose and limits real, mortal danger to others. The indecent exposure regulations are just random sensibility issues. There are a litany of other "nanny laws" that either only protect the individual from their self, or only protect the community from potential economic losses, not real danger. If we are going to argue this is an issue of liberty, let's attack that entire list of regulations before we get to the masks which are a temporary and more necessary measure than any of those others.

I am counting on the support of my Libertarian, Conservative, and Liberal friends to win this election on August 18th. What we need is leadership that is strong, accountable, and transparent. I will fight for our community, and I will always do what I feel is the right thing. I will never shy away from an issue, stay on the sidelines, or hide my true feelings. We may not always agree, but you can always count on me to be here and be accountable to you