Phippsburg Selectman Chris Mixon opposes the enforcement of mask mandates and finds the issue not to be one of public safety, but “freedom.” His notion that the enforcement of requirements, or laws, is a matter of using “my rights to take rights away from people” is curious, as it suggests that Mixon believes laws are essentially suggestions, and that enforcement breaches his definition of freedom.
This sounds like a radical version of anarchism. How surprising to find these 19th-century political philosophies alive and well in Phippsburg. Either that, or Mixon has taken the “select” part of his title and decided to run with it, cherry-picking which laws he personally finds worth enforcing and which can be interpreted as suggestions. Not as much an anarchist, as a micro-czarist.
Either way, with almost 300,000 dead, it’s nice to know that Mixon can say with confidence that the pandemic is not a “hoax.”
Nathaniel Krenkel
Portland
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