I count myself among the many fortunate souls that quit drinking before the use of camera phones became ubiquitous. I know of
at least one video taken of me passed out drunk in a friend’s kitchen that
existed on a friend’s mobile phone. If there are others I don’t know about them
but suffice to way I’d be the biggest hypocrite in the world to denounce public
drunkenness or debauchery at large.
So it is extra heartbreaking to see people giving
drunkenness a bad name as photos and videos surfaced of mask-less partiers crowding Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens like it was a Hellenic Bourbon
Street. That may be a worthwhile aim (though that’s debatable), but in case
people haven’t noticed we are still in the midst of a global pandemic that has killed more Americans than The First World War. For much of the crisis, which
is still going on, the epicenter was…Queens.
Bars are struggling to stay open and some of our finest New
York drinking establishments, like Otto’s Shrunken Head, have devised clever ways to serve their customers while being safe. It’s not always easy but drinking
during the pandemic is being done by more intelligent, if not more sober,
heads. So there is no excuse for not getting this right.
Wearing a mask is not “virtue signaling;” it’s adulthood. If
you can’t behave like an adult, you shouldn’t enjoy the spoils of public
drinking and intoxicated buffoonery. If you don’t know how to get drunk without
an audience, you’re a pathetic amateur. Why the hell do you need to be close to
strangers to drink anyway? What kind of sad sacks are we breeding in New York
that a pint of beer needs to be enjoyed with a crowd of strangers. Maybe I’ve
become too much of a jaded New Yorker, but I want to stay away from most people
even during good times.
Like many New Yorkers, I want our city’s nightlife to return
as quickly as possible. I miss making music and going to my friends’ bands’
shows. But the longer we have people screwing up, the longer the return will
elude us.
The crowds that jammed St. Mark’s Place in Manhattan weeks ago were abysmally naïve to think
they were in the clear; people in Queens have even less of an excuse. If living
in the part of the U.S. most affected by the biggest global plague in 100 years
won’t make you behave sensibly, then what else beyond sickness and death will
knock some sense into you?
NewYork has been doing better than most states. We didn’t have the luxury
of ignorance or childish posturing. Our stores still mandate masks and have
added protections that may be with us forever; so be it. We can’t afford to
backslide now.
The mask refusers and science deniers will be ashamed of
their ignorance if they survive. If you
join their ranks because you think the crisis is over, the results are the
same.
The COVID-19 crisis is real and still happening. New Yorkers
owe it to ourselves to do better.
