Title: "I Will Not Comply" Original CoS Document (slug): [[https://conventionofstates.com/i-will-not-comply|i-will-not-comply]] Login Required to view? No Created: 2021-12-10 20:30:54 Updated: 2021-12-20 03:00:00 Published: 2021-12-13 03:00:00 Converted: 2025-04-14T21:14:45.446884591 ---- After two years of living in Philadelphia coping with ongoing changing pandemic rules--wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, get a vaccine or if unvaccinated, wear two, maybe three masks--I finally lost it. Or better said, I stood up for what I believe.\\ \\ Looking back, my losing it was mild compared to the way I felt inside, a volcano erupting. It happened the other day at a Starbucks in Philadelphia. I was meeting a new Convention of States petition signer and volunteer and wanted to show her the Convention of States website and Citizens Builder tool. Starbucks, as a quiet place to meet with WIFI came immediately to mind. We would be undisturbed. A few minutes before she was scheduled to arrive, I got a text saying she was stuck in traffic and would have to reschedule or she would be late for work. I’ll get a cup of coffee and relax, I thought. Backtracking a little, about eight months ago, I gave up wearing a mask. It happened at one of my first patriot events in Lansdale outside of Philadelphia where I met the COS grassroots coordinator. I had signed the petition and was a new District Captain. He was speaking at the event and suggested I come and see what COS was all about. When I arrived, the place was packed; wall to wall mask-less people. I stepped outside to relax and to breathe fresh air. I was mask-less for the first time in a year in public, and I was afraid of getting sick. Since that time, I have gathered “The Facts” not “The Science” about the virus. I now know it is safe, in fact healthy, to breathe the same air as others. I, a healthy person, would be safe not wearing a mask. Mask-less for me continues, but not so for most people I see in stores, restaurants, and every public place in Philadelphia. I am the lone wolf; ninety-nine percent of people are covering their faces with masks. \\ \\ That day, at Starbucks, I walked in mask-free forgetting the mandate in Philadelphia put in place by Mayor Kenney who, might I add, was found not wearing a mask in public when visiting other states, after he imposed masks on all Philadelphia citizens.\\ \\ That day, in Starbucks, the cashier said, “Do you need mask?” She had a box full next to the register. I replied, “I don’t wear a medical mask.” She nodded, I paid, asked for the code to the bathroom, and went to the front of the store. On the way to the Ladies room and from behind the plexiglass, another woman said in her sternest voice, “Where is your mask?” I replied, "I don’t wear one.” She said, “You have to wear one.” I ignored her and walked on. When I came out from the Ladies room, she handed me a mask from behind the plexiglass. “Here is your mask,” she said pulling one out of her box of many next to the coffee orders waiting for pick-up. “I don’t wear one,” I repeated my voice rising. She said, “You have to wear one in here. Next time I won’t serve you.” Looking around the room at faces buried behind masks, eyes downcast locked in computers and cellphones ignoring the scene, I shouted, “If you all took off your masks, we wouldn’t be in this situation.” I threw the mask back under the plexiglass, picked up my coffee, looked around the room and shouted, “I will not comply!” Words I have heard in many trainings in Convention of States floated in mind, “You may stand alone, but stand up for what you believe." And I did.