Healthcare Workers Stand Up To Lockdown Protestors In North Carolina
Healthcare workers to lockdown protestors: “They’re putting me and my family at risk”
At this point, much of the United States has been under coronavirus lockdown for weeks or even months. While decisions to close were left up to state and city governments — and some never actually gave the directive at all — people all over the country have been doing their best to stay home, because it helps reduce the virus’s spread and save lives. And then there are the protestors.
In a number of states over the last few weeks, people have held protests in cities and at their state capitals, marching with signs reading things like, “I want a haircut,” and “Live free or die.”
What these people apparently fail to realize is that sure, maybe they’re willing to die for their economy. That’s crazy enough on its own, but their choice. However, by reopening states too early, we’ll risk allowing massive spreading of the coronavirus, and a lot of other people will die, too. The selfishness of these protestors is on full display, and if they could just display even one small shred of empathy, they might see why their split ends are not as important as the lives of other humans. But anyway.
In North Carolina, one of these protests was held Tuesday. Only this time, lockdown protestors came face-to-face with a powerful counter-protest. Healthcare workers from area hospitals were there, in their scrubs and masks, standing in a formation that allowed them to stay the appropriate distance apart from one another. They stood stoic in the face of the protestors, allowing them to see the real human cost of their selfishness.
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As the lockdown protestors heckled and harassed them, the healthcare workers stayed silent and strong. Some held signs that said, “Stay Home For ME.”
“They’re putting me and my family at risk,” Sekia Royall, a nutrition specialist who works at O’Berry Hospital in Goldsboro, said in a statement. “My daughter and I both have pre-existing conditions, and if someone gets the virus at our facility, it will spread like wildfire. For some of our patients it could be fatal.”
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Carrie Shropshire, a medical student at Campbell University in Raleigh, added, “We take an oath to ‘do no harm,’ and these protesters are literally causing harm.”
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That’s what this all comes down to, really. The protestors think they’re standing up for their own rights, but they fail to see how interconnected all people are when they go about their daily lives. If they get their way, many innocent people will die. Sometimes, giving up a small piece of personal freedom to save the lives of others is called for in a society. If only these protestors could see the importance of that.
