I'm 72 years old. When I started elementary school, I found that many of my schoolmates had been crippled by polio. And I remember, as soon as the polio vaccine became available, my family, along with hundreds of others, lined up to get it ASAP, at that school.
When I was in the second grade, my 6-year-old neighbor and playmate died of the mumps, decades before a vaccine for that was invented. I will never forget the image of him lying in his coffin, holding a Bible.
Now I can't forget the news story/image of a student's mother crying hysterically because her son was "being tortured by being made to wear a mask" at school!
Having to live one's life crippled by polio is torture. Having to bury your son, who died of the mumps, is torture. Having to wear a mask to keep you, and others, safe from COVID-19 is not torture.
DARLENE SCALF
retired high school teacher
Harahan