My letter to the coffee shop that wouldn’t give me my paid-for coffee because of no mask

Despite my photo with JP Sears showing they often don’t even require masks

Here’s a letter I sent to the owner of Crimson Cup, a coffee shop chain in Columbus Ohio. Feel free to pull out portions for your own use.

I’ve been a customer at Crimson Cup for seven years, commonly going to the locations in Clintonville, UA and Easton. In fact, I used to live about eight houses down the street from the one in Clintonville, and would regularly write my books while there. Great coffee, scrumptious morning glory muffins (which they stopped making, boo!), and wonderful atmosphere.

So it is with regret that I must relate my bad experience at the Easton store last week. It concerns masks. I went back in without wearing a mask to receive the cappuccino I had already paid for (the garage doors were, by the way, wide open, so it was effectively open air), and the employee (a bearded young man) demanded I wear the mask or he wouldn’t give me the cappuccino. …which he yanked off the countertop as he realized I wasn’t wearing a mask. I told him I don’t wear masks, and that, fine, I will just take a refund. He refused. I stood there for a while dumbfounded: He really wasn’t even going to refund me. His demeanor was not one of, “Oh, I’m sorry about this, but the rules are that you have to, and this seems so excessive, but I’m just not allowed, and for all I know you’re an undercover city mask enforcer, etc.” No. His attitude was one of moral righteousness. He felt great about how he had “stuck it” to an evil non-masked person. That anti-masker must be a Trump supporter, and I defeated one of those unclean people today! 

As background, masks don’t slow respiratory viruses which are spread via smoke-like aerosols, and, even if they did have some efficacy, the way they’re worn, and the fact that everyone seated is not wearing one, obviously undermines them. (I’m setting aside N95 masks, which one shouldn’t even wear for more than a short period of time.) It has also been known since March of 2020 that asymptomatics very rarely spread it, so masks are moot even if they were effective. And, furthermore, the infection fatality rate of Covid is broadly flu-like, safer than flu for those roughly 40 and younger, and more dangerous than the average flu for those 50 and up. People have lost all sense of proportion.

And masks have hosts of harms, many which, if you mention them on social media, will get you suspended (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.). They cover our only two breathing holes, they cover our emotional expressions, our identity, cause skin wounds, and block our ability to see our lower visual field which is crucial for visuomotor feedback when walking which thereby enhances falls. The world was appalled when we saw the photos of the accused terrorists on their way into Guantanamo Bay shackled with face masks – it was humiliating, unnecessary, and was compared to torture. What happened in the collective mind that every healthy human everywhere should at all times wear a face mask?! Is it “because surgeons do”? No. Even surgeons never ever wore surgical masks to slow respiratory viruses, but, instead, to stop patient goop from getting in their mouth or nose, and to stop always-bacterial-ridden spittle from falling into the patient’s open wound. And even if surgeons had worn masks to slow respiratory viruses, what’s good for a short stint standing still in open surgery isn’t necessarily good for everyone everywhere all the time.

I have been coming to the Easton store all summer, and even after the more recent City-wide mask mandate I wasn’t being hassled by your other employees about wearing a mask [see Exhibit #1 below], which I will not do. Nearly every store at Easton is in fact not mandating it, no matter what it says on the door. My wife works at Macys, and it is not enforced there. It isn’t enforced at any of the restaurants I’ve been to.

Exhibit #1: JP Sears and I in this coffee shop not wearing masks months earlier

It is no longer acceptable for individuals or businesses to say they are just “following orders.” The orders are irrational and unscientific, and masks (and vaccine mandates) are much more about psychology and in-group membership than about epidemiology. For those caught up in the Covid fervor, it is a moral mission to discriminate against those not showing sufficient zeal to the Covid cause. They relish identifying the unclean enemy, demanding they display obeisance, and humiliating and rejecting those who refuse. On its surface it’s about epidemiology, but the real factors are human psychology and social group dynamics.

I hope you can find ways to get a sense of proportion and tolerance into your employees, and that, as a business leader in our community, you can be a much-needed voice of reason.

Sincerely,

Mark Changizi