Who Were Those Unmasked Men?

I went hiking on Sunday at beautiful serene Mount Pisgah. While hiking a white male runner breathing hard without a mask ran by me and shouted in my face, “A mask will not save you!”

I wish I could say this happened only once, but later on that same hike another white male ran facing me directly on a narrow trail, without a mask, breathing hard.

When I actually said something this time, I was called a cunt. 

I do like to hike locally in Eugene, but unfortunately, I notice this pattern particularly with white men both at Pisgah and on Spencer Butte trails.

Are these angels speaking to my own sense of self importance, about its impending death, the ever changing mind stream, the emptiness of appearances? Or is it just another clueless entitled selfish white male?

Maybe he doesn’t know that I already had the COVID vaccine, and I wear a mask to support the safety of the medically fragile people I work with. Maybe he doesn’t think about the community of friends and family that are medically susceptible to the virus and feels that it is somehow taking away his freedoms.

So I thought I would take an ad out in the paper looking for a school to learn how to eviscerate white entitled arrogance.

There are many skills that I can share, but I would love to become a professional at this.

I can see the headlines: “Proud Boy eviscerated by proud girl.”

Christine Ratchinsky

Eugene