Joe Dill, The Man From Landrum, Part 1.

That’ll teach me to call a politician from Landrum.

Yesterday at 12pm, an ordinance went into place in the City of Greenville that requires employees and customers of grocery stores and pharmacies to wear a mask whilst in their place of business.

Just pharmacies. Just grocery stores.

I, personally, thought this was a victory for decency and common sense. As someone with lungs that are compromised, I try and go out as little as possible. I basically only go to pharmacies and drug stores. I did go to Triple A once for my car. I’ve picked up pizzas from Dominos on several occasions. But other than that, it's been grocery stores and pharmacies. Which makes sense, because, you know, that’s where the food and the medicine is.

The reason for the new city mandate is because once South Carolina, after a few short weeks of lock down, opened back up like a lotus flower seeing the sun for the first time, cases of Covid have been going up. The city of Greenville looked at the science and the data and decided to be proactive. This was not a partisan vote, either. The decision was unanimous. Which is crazy to believe. A unanimous decision? In this day and age? Jaimie and I even struggle to make unanimous decisions, and we love each other. Mainly we settle for "things that she wants that don't drive me crazy!"

And the mandate is limited! It’s only sixty days and it’s only those two places. The food. And the medicine. This isn’t the mall. This isn’t Bath and Body Works. They’re not requiring anyone to wear a Hazmat suit at Dick's Sporting Goods. But it they did, thanks to chemo, I've got two of them in my closet!

It’s not even that severe a facial covering. This isn’t what Leo wore in Man in the Iron Mask. This isn’t those things from those Greek Plays you learned about in that Intro to Theatre class you took that one semester back in college because you played Snoopy in your middle school’s production of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown and you thought it would be interesting except that it wasn’t. They aren’t even those creepy sex masks from Eyes Wide Shut!

While I was very proud of the City of Greenville, this ordinance did not apply to the county. The city of Greenville is small. The county, is very big. So in a moment of political activism, I decided to telephone all of the council people of Greenville County and tell them how I felt.

The first two I called went straight to voice mail. The third one, however, was the Councilman from Landrum, a man by the name of Joe Dill, he had the courage to pick up.

"Hello," Council Dill said.

Come back tomorrow to read what happened...