Guest opinion: Look at mask wearing as another way to help your fellow Idahoans

Last year, in Hamer, Idaho, one of Idaho’s hard-working potato farmers couldn’t get his crop up in time because of an early winter. His neighbors could have ignored him and let him suffer, but that’s not how we do things here. Instead, the community came together, and even after folks had worked hard to harvest their own crops, they brought their harvesters and kids over to help their neighbor out and harvest his crops.

A neighbor was in need because of the unseasonably cold weather. A community came together with the right tools to take care of their neighbor. That is the Idaho way.

That’s why it’s important for Idahoans to come together and mask up to protect ourselves from COVID-19. A mask is like any other tool: It has a specific purpose and, when used correctly, it helps get the job done. Just like using a post hole digger to help your neighbor repair his fence — or a shovel to dig spuds — wearing a mask helps your neighbor stay healthy so he or she can keep working and take care of his or her family.

In Idaho, we take care of ourselves and our families. But the pioneering spirit also requires us to take care of our neighbors, our communities, our land and our unique and beautiful state. In fact, we are known for being charitable people and good neighbors.

Much like 2019’s early frost, no one asked for COVID-19 to come to us; certainly no one wanted it and it is for sure unexpected. But it’s still here. We need to take care of ourselves, and we need to take care of our neighbors. Following the basic safety guidelines of social distancing — something Idahoans have been good at for as long as the state has existed — washing our hands, and using the right tool for the job by wearing our masks, we can take care of ourselves and our neighbors.

Masks work with the coronavirus just like an air filter works in your home or your car. The virus itself is small and can get through things, but the virus can’t travel by itself. Instead, it hitches a ride on water droplets that come out of our mouths and noses. Just like the air filter that stops dirt particles from getting into your house or your engine, the mask stops those water droplets that the virus is riding on and keeps it from getting out into the air — and into our neighbors’ bodies. This is important because sometimes we are infected and don’t show it, or we are infected and haven’t started showing symptoms but we are still contagious.

A mask is a tool that works and it is something easy that we can all do. By wearing a mask we show our neighbors we care and we want to protect them and our community.

Wearing our masks not only takes care of our neighbors, it also helps keep schools open, keeps businesses up and running and keeps our economy and our communities moving forward.

Our masks free us, until we get to the other side of this pandemic. It isn’t how things used to be, but for now it’s the right tool for the job, so Mask Up Idaho!