Commissioners should limit disbursement of library funds

About the same time Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rongstad reaffirmed a commitment to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the library issued an edict discriminating against anyone who won’t wear a mask.

The “no exceptions” policy discriminates against autistic affected children and others that don’t understand a mask, anyone with immune system issues, people with medical concerns that restrict the safe use of a mask, as well as anyone that may want to use the library that is not sick and does not choose to wear a mask.

This discrimination is abuse of power, illegal under ADA laws, and impossible to justify as a public funded, taxpayer owned facility. Their edict goes beyond all mask guidelines.

As factions act to isolate and polarize us as either dominated and victimized, or racist and violent, it is critical all of us lock arms and stand together, or 6 feet apart, as Americans. United.

Mask wearing has become the most recent aspect of this deliberate separation of people, easily recognizable with prejudged opinions of the person — either masked or not. We can’t allow this to drive us further apart.

By now each of us wear a mask or not, we shop at a store or not, and go about our disrupted lives with this new brand, either on or off our faces.

If the library cannot use our public funds fairly, without forcing their version of virtue signaling on us, I ask the commissioners to limit the funding mechanisms and disbursement of library funds.

MARK WATSON

Sandpoint