I Tried Going into a Maine Business Without a Mask That Requires One

Maine Indoor Mask Mandate

This past Wednesday, Maine legislation was supposed to rule on whether or not an indoor mask mandate would be making its return to Vacationland or not. Instead of ruling on it, they decided to push it off until Monday during a special meeting that will be held. For what it's worth, Massachusetts has already decided to go back to an indoor mask mandate.

Maine Businesses

Without an actual indoor mask mandate in place, it has been up to the discretion of Maine businesses individually on whether or not they'd like to require masks to be worn in their establishments or not. For example, as just noted by Aimee Petrin, the Executive and Artistic Director for Portland Ovations, masks will be required at all indoor performances this season for the time being.

HiFi Donuts

Yesterday happened to be a long day at the station, so I decided to snag a bite from one of my favorite Portland spots (and conveniently right across the street from One City Center), HiFi Donuts. Now, full disclosure, being fully vaccinated, I don't always wear a mask. There's situations where I will (meaning if its not required), but I don't do it 100% of the time. So, when I went to walk into HiFi and noticed a sign on the door that said they required masks to enter, I thought I was out of luck -- until I noticed that you could call them to have food brought outside to you.

Whoever answered the phone when I called was super nice and I explained the situation -- I didn't have a mask and I was hoping to order a sandwich and have it brought out to me. They denied my request, for no other reason than telling me they had a mask inside that they could offer me. I hung up, went inside, got the mask (as they thanked me), put it on, ordered my sandwich, paid, waited for it outside, got it, and went about my merry way.

If you were looking for or hoping for some big dramatic situation to unfold in this article, this is where I tell you that you'll be disappointed. This was a real simple transaction. From start to finish, it maybe took a maximum of 10 minutes. No drama, no heated back and forth -- just a sandwich ordered, a sandwich made, and a sandwich devoured.

So, what's the point of this article then? Proof that not everything has to be a dog fight. Not everything has to be blown up into a massive erupting volcano that, quite honestly, most of the time is barely even an anthill. Not everything has to be so loud all the time.

There are those of us who have been vaccinated and feel like we've done our part to be able to go through life maskless for the time being. There are those of us who have been vaccinated who, for extra precautions toward at-risk people, continue to remain masked in public. There are those of us that are a hybrid of those. And there are those of us who don't plan to be vaccinated.

We're all different people with different views and different opinions. That's what makes the world go 'round in an interesting way. If we all were the same people, it'd be a real boring world and existence. But there's one thing that we seem to forget that no matter our views, we should all be on the same side of -- respect.

At the end of the day, this whole 10-minute transaction wasn't just a food and money transaction -- it was a respect transaction. I respected HiFi Donuts enough to adhere to their request. They respected me enough to thank me for understanding their requirement to do business. We both thanked each other and went about our days as normal as possible.

Sometimes, we can really make life that plain and simple -- all through respect.. I think we just need to remember that it's very easily possible.