Tom, that is hilarious. Lots of people we’d like to shoot sometimes I guess. LOL 
Steve, excellent.
I think it’s kind of dumb for someone to freak out about being asked to wear a mask somewhere. This woman is an embarrassment. She is probably over reacting to a perceived slippery slope situation. Brought about by … I think it’s equally dumb to have a law saying one has to wear a mask everywhere, and shouldn’t go out to the beach in the sunshine. There is real fear in America of losing what has been perceived as freedom.
Nevertheless, this woman should go find a dentist that doesn’t care if she wears a mask. She has no right to demand that he run his office her way. Just dumb, entitlement mentality. And a dentist down the road should be allowed to operate that way if he wants to.
First, The reality is, there are differences of opinion about the science of the mask thing. Most agree that wearing a mask is better for others and worse for you. Also, wearing a mask does almost nothing to protect the wearer in any scenario. In fact, wearing it poorly (constantly adjusting it with one’s hands) is actually much more dangerous than breathing without a mask. And working while wearing one of many different kinds of masks increases carbon dioxide inhalation, which is not good for a person. Especially in the Alabama heat. (not really at issue in a dental office)
So, it’s not as clear cut of a line as everyone walking around with a loaded gun and pointing it the right way, (which everyone aught to be able to do also). You are not actually equating the walking around with a loaded gun with walking around with COVID. You are equating walking around illegally shooting people with walking around breathing. That is far from the same thing.
Anyone who truly believes they are going to kill grandma by not wearing a mask, but refuses to do so because it might infringe on their comfort level for a few minutes is just an ass. People have a right to be an ass, they don’t have a right to shoot grandma unless she’s about to shoot them.
But the fact is, most people who don’t wear masks don’t believe that they are going to kill grandma. Some of that belief comes from ignorance of the issue. Some from apathy.
But many because They have been told dozens of different things by competitive “authorities” on the subject over the course of many months. Often times by organizations who are competing with their own message. And again, we are back to the “we don’t trust government” mantra…
Secondly, People have the right to value other concepts above safety and security. Historically, most surrendering of freedom has been done to acquire some promise of security. People in this country are at a very significant low when it comes to trusting that promise. Their cities are on fire, their mayors and governors are bowing to anarchists and leaving them out to fend for themselves, the police are hamstrung, people caught in riots call 9-11 and are told they have to fend for themselves, and this often is happening in the places where the people have already been personally disarmed…so people are increasingly unwilling to make the trade of rights-for-security. All of a sudden, people aren’t as concerned about being safe (mask wearing)nwhen something that they deem to be more important comes along. We see that on every side of every issue. For example, COVID was the terrible scourge of society, until it got replaced by racial equality movements for example. My only point is, security and safety are not necessarily a person’s most important concerns; And often, rightfully so. If a person was confronted with running into gunfire in order to protect his family, we would judge him a coward if he were not willing to set aside his concerns for safety in order to hold up some higher ideal.
In short, folks have a right to value what they want to value. That’s pretty much the definition of freedom.
If I don’t want to be around someone who wears pink shirts, I can go somewhere else. If I don’t want to be around people who worship some particular god, I can go somewhere else. This woman can go to another dentist. The dentist can kick her out. Everyone can do their thing. If someone is exceptionally concerned about COVID and being around people in a grocery store who don’t have a mask on, they can work out some way to hide in a cabin in the woods until it goes away in about 5 weeks or 50 years. Or they can shop online, or they can go to the store at midnight in a plastic bubble. If I am willing to send my son on a cross country trip in a woodgas truck during a pandemic and social unrest, I can do that. Or I can decide I am unwilling to do that and not send him out there. I, and everyone else, has to make personal decisions based upon the circumstances in the world around us all the time.
Personally, I feel I was cheated by not being born after the Star Trek replicator and transporter was invented, but that’s just me. Maybe I’ll start a social movement because I don’t like the circumstances that the reality of society is forcing me to live in. Maybe we can put all our extra cash into inventing it before I am too old to take advantage of it. 
I think we need a great deal more personal responsibility in our society, our rhetoric, and our expectation of ourselves and others so that we can take personal responsibility of our own circumstances and actions.
