Letter to the Editor: Life is the greatest priority

To the Editor:

I so often hear statements that make me wonder about people’s priorities. I’m not getting much of a chance to visit with people about their priorities right now, so the best I can do is try to explain mine and hope someone will help me understand.

For me, life is the greatest priority, followed very closely by the dignity of the human person. When someone refuses to wear a mask because it takes away their freedom, they are telling us they care more about their personal freedom than they do about their life or mine.

When they say they don’t believe the science that says masks help, it tells me they don’t believe in the way nature works, including a virus. Science is, after all, the study of nature, of the way things work according to their very nature - the way they were made.

I realize that scientists can and do make mistakes just like we all do. We don’t know all there is to know about something when it is new or when we first start studying it. Good scientists keep studying and tell us what they learn that is new, even when it changes something they told us before. It just shows us they are still learning. That’s why it’s very important that we have public scientists that work for the common good rather than for a company or special group that pays them just to do special interest targeted research.

Every person has intellect and free will. Therefore, freedom is very important to the dignity of every person, but we have to have life to experience it. It stands to reason that our first and most basic work is to protect life. I would think we would want to do that, whether it is mandated or not.

My right to freedom comes with the responsibility to protect that freedom for myself and for others. It should be common sense. I have no right to take away someone else’s right. We should not need a law to make us do it. We should just do it whether our leaders can or do mandate it.

That is what I think and every time I see someone wearing a mask, I smile a “Thank You.”

Mary T. Klauke Abbas
Dorchester