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So I follow an anonymous confessions page that contains confessions to many people from my local community, I've considered unfollowing it several times because it (and other pages like it) lessen one's faith in humanity. However today I'm a bit glad I haven't because I came across something quite concerning that needs to be discussed as I am sure that it is an issue that affects all communities.
I live in a state where there are no longer any government mask mandates but of course most businesses have a sign at the door stating that you can't come in without a mask. Very few people in my town actually care about wearing a mask, those people will of course comply with these rules and there are also many more people who will comply just because they have gotten used to it, however a large portion of the population of my town don't care and will walk into these businesses without a mask on (I am one of these people) and most businesses here don't do anything about it since a business would certainly loose a significant amount of money if they were to kick out (or even just inconvenience) half of their customers.
A few days ago a deplorable individual on the local confessions page I follow stated that they work at a particular type of restaurant in town and they are mad that people ignore the sign on the door that says masks are required so this person spits into the drinks of all the people who come in without a mask on. A few days later (after being told that they were destined to get fired) they posted another confession claiming that they have yet to be caught and they do it about ten times a day. A drink with an employee's spit in it obviously fits the United States legal definition of an adulterated food and within my state adulterating food in this way is a misdemeanor crime punishable with up to six months in prison or a $500 fine. While this individual's second post shows that they are quite clever, they are not very good at being anonymous, anyone can be found if you have the right people looking, and since there are only four or five of the particular type of restaurant I am seriously considering notifying the owners of each of these restaurants so that this deplorable individual can be found, fired, and criminally prosecuted. And I definitely won't be buying anything from any of these businesses ever again. I'm no germaphobe, but I don't take the idea of adulterated food lightly.
Now I'm sure that this deplorable and dumb individual would say something along the lines of, "well you won't have to worry about me spitting in your drink if you'd just wear a mask," and while this would technically be true with the case of this individual, it is not the case everywhere. There is no way of knowing when you will end up at a restaurant where one of the workers may intentionally spit in your drink and you will never know why they did it. They could spit in your drink if they are offended by you not wearing a mask or they could spit in it if they're offended that you're wearing one. They could spit in it if they don't like your Trump hat, or maybe the Bernie Sanders button on your backpack. Maybe they don't like you because you're white, or maybe because you're black, or maybe because you're straight, or maybe not straight, or maybe it is because you look like their neighbor, or maybe it is because you're their neighbor. We live in a world of hate and while we all should try our best to make our world one filled with love it is important to recognize where we are. We live in a world where large corporations are working to keep us fearful, and angry, and hateful towards one another ans we have no way of knowing when we will end up in a restaurant where the server or the cashier or the cook has been motivated to believe that we are their enemy and will end up spitting in our drink. I realize that fear is the mind killer, but with the state the world is in today I believe that this may be a healthy paranoia.
In fact I really don't trust any sort of food that I don't cook myself, even if I may never have someone spit in my drink there are plenty of other ways that my food can become contaminated. Masks of course are a big issue, we exhale lots of germs all the time, and while the corona virus has been proven to not spread easily on surfaces there are plenty of other germs and other things that we exhale that do, I do not understand why anyone would want something that collects all of these germs on their face (this is one of the reasons I don't wear them when I can avoid it), and the thought of someone wearing one of these while preparing my food makes me feel uncomfortable especially considering the fact that people touch their germ covered masks all the time because they constantly have to adjust it, or scratch their cheek, or brush their beard underneath it to make it more comfortable. Masks are fine for doctors and nurses to use because they are disciplined in not touching their face while wearing them and they change them regularly. The same cannot be said about the pot smoking MacDonald's worker who drives to work in their Dorito stained car and pulls out the mask they've never washed from the glove compartment they've never cleaned before walking into work fifteen minutes late. And then there's the people at restaurants who wear gloves, someone working in a kitchen will touch gross things all the time and they will feel it if they have bare hands so they will wash their hands often, someone wearing gloves may take a half hour to realize that their gloves are dirty and think to wash their hands and replace them. (I went out to eat with family last night and I seriously considered asking the waitress who refilled my water to take her gloves off)
Again I am not a germaphobe but I've spent a lot of time around them, the concerns I have about masks and gloves were concerns brought up by Donald Trump who is enough of a germaphobe to stop an interview so that he can kick his own chief of staff out of the room for coughing (and realize that this was pre-covid). There are of course several other places that food can be contaminated and, while that is a topic for another day, I will say that I've read enough Joel Salatin to have to put myself into a state of cognitive dissonance whenever I buy meat (since I can't afford grass fed meat from local farms).
In fact I may have distracted from my point by ranting about other ways that our food can be contaminated, I'm not even afraid that virus that is floating around and you shouldn't be either. The sad reality that I'm trying to communicate here is that we live in a world where we cannot walk into a random restaurant and fully trust that we will be given an unadulterated product. The hate present in today's society has become prevalent enough that any average person could be harmed by it. We should not participate in this sort of hate, instead we should follow the teachings of our Savior and learn to love our enemies and to do good to those who may seek to hurt us.