Given the anguish and rage on the streets of so many American cities this weekend, it would be asinine to send out my usual sort of silly little essay. Instead, I wrote this possibly equally inconsequential musing on the riots. There is probably a lot of other stuff on this subject that is much more worth your time, but it's all I've got.

This week's essay was going to be on the subject of masks and how my thinking on the subject seems to have evolved.

For now, I'll leave it at this: among the ranks of American masks resistors, there are those who see masks as part and parcel of a program to move us closer to tyranny. In this worldview, all of the restrictions on haircuts and gardening supplies are just the first steps toward FEMA camps, and masks are being encouraged to make sure we are constantly reminded to be afraid and, therefore, to love liberty a little less.

But now we have this study, which uses computer modeling to suggest that, if 80 percent of us would mask up reliably, there would be almost no need for further shutdowns.

In other words, masks aren't a tool of oppression, they are its antidote. Like the Greatest Generation, you too can now strike a blow against fascism, and you don't even have to plant a Victory Garden, collect scrap metal, or accept rationing of bacon and nylons.

All you have to do is be tough enough to endure the discomfort of wearing a little scrap of cloth on your face, brave enough to overcome feeling a little silly.

When you put it that way, it hardly seems like much to ask.

Thanks for reading.