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Collected Item: “Anti-Mask Protests”

Give your story a title.

Anti-Mask Protests

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Photograph. Found at https://www.kxly.com/masks-will-not-silence-us-people-protest-mask-mandate-in-downtown-coeur-dalene/

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

After living in Massachusetts throughout the emergence of COVID-19, and watching the state promptly implement and obey lockdown restrictions and mask mandates, traveling to north Idaho in mid-July was a complete culture shock. Less than a week after I arrived back to my hometown of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to visit my family, Kootenai County finally passed a mask mandate. As a result, a huge portion of the city’s population protested the simple act of wearing a face mask, claiming it was a complete violation of their freedom. The protesters threatened those who did obey the mandate. The difference in reactions by the people in Idaho vs. Massachusetts as a result of something so simple as a mask mandate was shocking to me. It is a completely different world than what I had gotten used to in Massachusetts, and I’ll never forget the hostile feeling that filled the small town of Coeur d’Alene, for the first time that I can ever remember.

Enter a URL associated with this object, if relevant.

https://www.kxly.com/masks-will-not-silence-us-people-protest-mask-mandate-in-downtown-coeur-dalene/

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Emily Oliver

Give this story a date.

2020-07-25
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