There are quite a few things going on in Colorado politics these days, including the remarkable cooperation of our entire slate of senators and House members coming together to request continued federal active duty for our wonderful National Guard troops, and the news that most Colorado businesses are following the needed COVID guidelines. So, that is all good news.

But there was another story that caught my eye about the just-concluded special session of our state legislature, regarding that whole mask wearing thing. It seems that quite a few GOP members of our legislature ignored the CDC (and basic courtesy) recommendations about mask wearing, thereby putting not only themselves at risk, but as we know, putting, well, everyone there at risk, as well as their friends and families. 

Now, I admit that I am tempted to write yet another screed excoriating these foolish and deeply selfish people. I could write about Colorado Springs GOP Rep. Larry Liston, who was photographed wearing his mask, well, on the top of his head, during discussions on the floor of the state House. Unless Mr. Liston has a blowhole up there, he is flouting not only the rules, but basic courtesy and safety protocols. 

I could write about Colorado Springs GOP Rep. Dave Williams, who delivered a maskless speech in which he stated his opposition to a relief bill for small businesses and more. He went on to call upon Colorado businesses to engage in what he called “civil disobedience” and to ignore the COVID safety measures that seek to protect people from a virus that has sickened a quarter million Coloradans and has killed several thousand, because, you know, freedom and such. 

I could go on with additional irresponsible proposals by GOP representatives, but I have decided, upon reading their insightful notions of what people should do in the face of a deadly pandemic, that they are correct. Yes, that’s the ticket, science is wrong, and personal opinions are as valid as any scientific evidence, especially if those opinions are backed up by some guy’s video on YouTube.

That is why I call upon these extraordinary Republican leaders to continue their party’s denial of science by taking on the biggest scientific bully out there – gravity! Let’s let these fine leaders (who tend to come from Colorado Springs for some reason, maybe it’s in our water down here?) announce their refusal to be frightened and intimidated by gravity. “Science” claims that gravity exists, but when you ask them to prove it, they can’t provide a single picture of gravity beams or any other mechanism by which gravity pulls stuff down. And do you know where people hear about this so-called gravity? In public schools. So, there you have it.

The liberals and, well, pretty much every single educated person and scientist, claim that gravity keeps us on the ground, yet there are airplanes that fly way up in the sky. How do the libs explain that? And while most people know someone who got sick from COVID (and far too many know someone who died from it), I bet not a single Coloradan knows anyone who died of “gravity.” Sure, there are anecdotal stories of people who fell off tall buildings and some guy named Louis XVI supposedly lost his head due to gravity, but has anyone actually seen a gravity? I rest my case.

Last Tuesday we saw both Williams and Liston introduce amendments to allow businesses to open at 100% capacity, because the virus is like gravity, I guess, and does not really exist. As GOP Rep. Mark Baisley (remarkably, not from Colorado Springs) put it, “When we continue on in the state of emergency and then have emergency orders numbering over 230, we’re no longer living under a constitutional republic. We’re living under the imagination, the preference, of one particular person.” He is talking about the governor, of course, and most certainly not the great science-denying leader in the White House who is calling upon his supporters to live in the imagination, the preference, of one particular person named Trump, but I digress…

The thing is, science just doesn’t care what your opinion is. There is no partisan slat to the physical world. The COVID virus does not skip over you if you are a freedom-loving Republican with no mask (not entirely sure of the virus’s opinion of masks worn on the top of the head). The virus, like the orbits of the planets and water turning into ice when it gets cold, just does not care about your opinions. Even the most ardent GOPers appear to accept the idea that the government can compel you to stop at stop signs, not rob banks, and put kids in car seats. But wear a mask? Well, that’s an attack on my freedom, grandma be darned.

Elected leaders have a responsibility, and I have no doubt the GOPers mentioned above think they are fulfilling that duty. But not wearing masks, and publicly mocking the science-based temporary rules put in place to save lives, is just reckless. I would hope that these folks would not encourage people to play on the edge of tall buildings, because, you know, gravity. And if they would accept the gravity of the actual COVID situation, they’d wear their darn masks.