Skip to content
  • Subscribe
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Email
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment
  • Features
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
Suburban Chicagoland

Suburban Chicagoland

Original News, Features & Opinion on Chicago, Illinois and America

  • About
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Our Writers
      • Ray Hanania
      • Bill Lipinski
      • Biography: Aaron Hanania
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Policy
    • Reach Out
  • Sections
    • Events
    • Opinion
    • News
    • Features
    • Seniors
    • Comic Strip
  • Library
    • “MIdnight Flight” Online Book
      • Midnight Flight Book Overview
      • Midnight Flight Introduction
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 1
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 2
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 3
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 4
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 5
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 6
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 7
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 8
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 9
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 10
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 11
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 12
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 13
    • Villages, Cities & Towns
    • Federal Office Holders
    • County Officials
    • Legislators
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
  • Comment
  • Podcast
    • Ray Hanania on Politics
    • Two Guys on Politics
    • Hanania on Tiktok
  • News Wire
  • Archive 2004-2013
  • Toggle search form
  • Hastings insurance legislation
    Hastings announces legislation to ensure fair homeowners insurance rates for Illinois families Business
  • Mahnoor Ahmad campaign photo
    Mahnoor Ahmad runs for DuPage County Board seat Democrat
  • Sunday, October 26, the Village of Orland Park formally rededicated its Village Hall in honor of the late former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens
    Village of Orland Park Rededicates Village Hall in Honor of Late Former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens Government
  • Fire at townhome at 13900 block of Berkhansted Court in Orland Park, just before midnight on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025
    Firefighter treated for dehydration battling townhouse fire in Orland Park – no residents injured Fire
  • Firefighters with the Orland Fire Protection District who responded to a fire in an apartment at 15200 block of Al Camino Terrace on Saturday morning said the next day that they did find a kitten that needed respiratory aid that they saved.
    FIRE UPDATE: Fire District releases photos of kitten saved from Orland Park apartment fire Saturday Features
  • two-story apartment building on the 15200 block of El Camino Terrace in Orland Park
    Orland Park apartment fire Saturday morning, no injuries Fire
  • Illinois Senator Michael Hastings addressing the Orland Township Democratic Organization Wednesday Oct. 12, 2022
    Hastings calls for bipartisan action to protect Illinois families from SNAP benefit shutdown Baby Boomers
  • Illinios Industrial Energy Consumers, information ad
    Get information on the Illinois Energy Omnibus Bill in Springfield Business
  • State Senator Mike Porfirio secured over $20 million to support infrastructure improvements and construction in the 11th Senate District.
    Senator Porfirio applauds more than $20 million in infrastructure repairs coming to the 11th District News
  • Dad and daughter reunited Lebving Law firm photo
    Little Girl Recovered and Reunited with Dad After Long Separation Dads' Rights
  • 11-03-25 OFPD Coffee living alone
    Orland Fire hosts meeting on helping Seniors who live alone Nov. 5 Baby Boomers
  • State Senator Michael Hastings introduces law to revive long dormant and degraded Tinley Park Mental Health Center into a Sports Park for the community. Photo courtesy of the State Senate President Don Harmon
    Hastings secures $250,000 grant for Easterseals Academy’s Tinley Park campus Health
  • Chicago ranks as 161st worst city for crime in new national survey Chicago
  • Kat Abughazaleh 9th DIstrict Congress 2026 candidate democrat
    Kat Abughazaleh raises over $520,000 in Q2 of 2025 with more than $630,000 cash on hand for 2026 Democratic primary election elections
  • Silent Threat: The True Dangers of Lithium-Ion Batteries — How to Stay Safe and Respond to a Battery Fire Fire
Officials at Orland Township wear face masks to help protect the residents of the community and they encourage the public to wear face masks. Photo courtesy of Orland Township

Opinion: Wearing a face mask is a symbol of responsibility and respect

Posted on December 5, 2020December 5, 2020 By Ray Hanania 1 Comment on Opinion: Wearing a face mask is a symbol of responsibility and respect
SHARE THIS STORY
            
 
  

Opinion: Wearing a face mask is a symbol of responsibility and respect

Wearing face masks to help reduce exposure to Coronavirus has become a political issue by selfish politicians who don’t seem to care. Elected officials who encourage the wearing of facemarks are being responsible and caring while officials who don’t and make excuses for not doing so are irresponsible and don’t belong in office. Originally published in the Patch Online 12-02-20.

By Ray Hanania

Wearing a face mask has been turned into a political issue with some people mocking those who wear face masks.

With the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic continuing to spread and continuing to take lives, it is the height of arrogance and disrespect to not wear one.

It’s especially disrespectful to the public when elected officials refuse to wear face masks and fail to encourage the public to wear face masks. Elected officials are supposed to set the example as role models of good behavior but in places like Orland Park’s Village Hall, that’s unfortunately just simply not the case at all.

How can it hurt to wear a face mask? It’s no different than putting your hand over your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough. The face mask isn’t the sole answer to avoiding getting sick with coronavirus but it is one way to help prevent the spread of the virus to others and to prevent yourself from becoming infected.

Officials at Orland Township wear face masks to help protect the residents of the community and they encourage the public to wear face masks. Photo courtesy of Orland Township
Officials at Orland Township wear face masks to help protect the residents of the community and they encourage the public to wear face masks. Photo courtesy of Orland Township

If more people would wear a face mask, we probably would be in as deep a problem as we are today.

The CDC recommends that everyone wears a face mask when they are in public, writing, “CDC recommends that people wear masks in public settings, like on public and mass transportation, at events and gatherings, and anywhere they will be around other people.”

Despite the political spin from Mayor Keith Pekau and the Village of Orland Park that cases of the coronavirus are “decreasing,” the data in fact shows that the cases are increasing. You don’t have to listen to the political spin that is being irresponsibly spread from Village Hall, which has become the capitol of irresponsibility these past few years.

Data from the Illinois Department of Public Health shows that for Orland Park and its two zip codes, 60462 and 60467, the total number of cases is currently at 3,463, a troubling surge over the past 30 days when it was only 2,094. That’s an increase of 1,369 new infections of Orland Park residents.

It is true that the positivity rate has slightly dropped from the 12.5 percent that it was a few weeks back to the 10.1 percent that it is today. But is that something to celebrate or promote from an official source when a positivity rate of 3 percent is considered safe?

It’s all disturbing to have this kind of irresponsibility from a local public official who seemed to care more about his photo in front of the Christmas Tree during the lighting this past week than to serve as a role model of responsibility by wearing a face mask.

The message that is being sent out by officials not wearing a face mask is that despite their claims that they care about your safety, they really do not.

The most vulnerable people in our community are senior citizens. And I am not just saying that because I am a senior citizen. I am saying that because Orland Park has a large senior citizen population hat deserves to be protected and cared for and made our priority.

The media age in Orland Park is 22 percent higher than the rest of the State of Illinois. The population density in Orland Park is 1096 percent higher than the rest of the state. You can point to areas downstate and say nothing is happening there, but when we look at Orland Park, it is clear the threat of Coronavirus is real and it is severe.

About 20 percent of Orland Park’s 58,600 residents are Senior Citizens, 65 years and older, data shows. And that number from the Census is old taken from the last Census in 2010. I think it is even higher today. A quarter of those Senior Citizens live alone. One-fifth of those seniors are veterans. The average annual income for a senior in Orland Park is about $47,000.

Senior citizens in Orland Park were vulnerable even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck some nine months ago.

I understand how young people don’t care about their health. They don’t face the same deteriorating health problems that most seniors face. So yea, they are going to go party and have fun in tight gatherings because our youth has a sense of invincibility, and irresponsibility in the case of some.

That’s why good leadership is so important in a community. If the elected officials don’t think wearing a face mask is important, why would the young people wear a face masks, especially in today’s era of heightened concerns reflecting a higher than average increase in the number of young people who turned out to vote for the very first time in their lives.

The elected officials in Orland Park promoted the idea of voting. Sure, they want those votes. But they just don’t seem to care about taking maximum precautions to protect the health of the others around us in society. They should be wearing face masks. They should be urging residents to wear face masks.

They should stop gambling politically with the health of the community, including not jeopardizing the lives of our senior citizen community. They should stop ridiculing those who wear face masks. Most importantly, they should start encouraging everyone to wear face masks and enforce a requirement that the face masks be worn in every Village business, community public event and office.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall columnist. Reach him at www.Hanania.com.)

newswire info
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.  

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at [email protected].

Follow RayHanania at Twitter
Ray Hanania
Latest posts by Ray Hanania (see all)
  • Hastings announces legislation to ensure fair homeowners insurance rates for Illinois families - October 29, 2025
  • Mahnoor Ahmad runs for DuPage County Board seat - October 29, 2025
  • Village of Orland Park Rededicates Village Hall in Honor of Late Former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens - October 29, 2025
NPV: 49
  • Tweet

SHARE THIS STORY
            
 
  
 
 
 
           
Blogger, Commentary, Cook County, coronavirus, Government, Health, Opinion, Orland Park, Politics, rayhanania, Suburban Chicagoland Tags:Coronavirus, COVID-19, face masks, infection, Mayor Keith Pekau, Orland Park, Orland Township, Pandemic, Paul O'Grady, Pekau refuses to wear masks, positivity rate. senior citizens, virus, wearing face masks

Post navigation

Previous Post: Orland Township Stands Ready to Distribute the COVID-19 Vaccine
Next Post: Democrat Tammy Wendt sworn in to Board of Review

Related Posts

  • A fire severely damaged an apartment building in the Town of Cicero at 5102 W 24th Place in the Town of Cicero early Sunday morning, March 13, 2022.
    Fire damages Cicero Apartment, no injuries Fire
  • Congresswoman Marie Newman, 3rd District Illinois
    House Passes more than $4 million in funding to support Newman community projects Chicago
  • Independent Orland Fire Protection District Trustee candidates (from left) Fire District Trustee Donald "DJ" Jeffers, Fire District Trustee Beth Damas Kaspar, and former Palos Heights Police CSO Bridget Tolan.
    Independent candidates launch social media and website for Orland Fire race Fire
  • Police Squad Car, courtesy of Wikipedia
    Bridgeview Police searching for suspect in Hann Funeral Home shooting breaking news
  • President Joe Biden's missteps and former President Donald Trump's thinned-skinned pettiness are driving this country down
    It can be embarrassing to be an American, sometimes Blogger
  • Orland Park Police arrest Robert Barajar
    Subject Arrested in Connection with Fatal Orland Park Traffic Crash Crime

More Related Articles

Cook County GOP Chairman Endorses Bruce Rauner for Re-election Government
MVCC election challenges denied News
Polish cultural dress World Fair US Bridgeview Tastes and culture from 6 continents featured at SeatGeek Stadium World Fair US July 7 – 28 Bridgeview
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash Differences in how people react to homicides in Chicago vs a wealthy suburb Baby Boomers
Loyola rambles to win News
Cannabis plant (marijuana). Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Gov. Pritzker, legislators move to legalize Adult-Use cannabis Government

Comment (1) on “Opinion: Wearing a face mask is a symbol of responsibility and respect”

  1. Pingback: Village of Orland Park votes down law requiring the wearing of face masks - Suburban Chicagoland

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Login with your Social ID
  • OPINION
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Papas
    Your Mortgage Company May Pay Your Taxes — But You Still Need to Watch
    October 17, 2025
  • Mohammed Faheem The Lightning Strike Radio Show small
    The Politicization of the Nobel Peace Prize — and Trump’s Fury Over Losing Again
    October 11, 2025
  • 06-04-25 Two Guys on Politics Background Zoom LOGO with images
    Video Podcast: Trump Kimmel Kirk Great American Divide Illegal Aliens polling and Illegal Aliens and ICE
    September 20, 2025
  • Illinois House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch speaking at a West Side affordable housing dedication
    Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, one of the best candidates to become Illinois Governor
    September 7, 2025
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Papas
    What You’re Missing on Your Property Tax Bill
    September 5, 2025
Subscribe to Ray Hanania's column graphic

Enter Your Email to Subscribe to Ray Hanania’s Columns

  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png

Mohammed Faheem The Lightning Strike Radio

  • NEWS
  • Hastings insurance legislation
    Hastings announces legislation to ensure fair homeowners insurance rates for Illinois families
    October 29, 2025
  • Mahnoor Ahmad campaign photo
    Mahnoor Ahmad runs for DuPage County Board seat
    October 29, 2025
  • Sunday, October 26, the Village of Orland Park formally rededicated its Village Hall in honor of the late former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens
    Village of Orland Park Rededicates Village Hall in Honor of Late Former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens
    October 29, 2025
  • Fire at townhome at 13900 block of Berkhansted Court in Orland Park, just before midnight on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025
    Firefighter treated for dehydration battling townhouse fire in Orland Park – no residents injured
    October 28, 2025
  • Firefighters with the Orland Fire Protection District who responded to a fire in an apartment at 15200 block of Al Camino Terrace on Saturday morning said the next day that they did find a kitten that needed respiratory aid that they saved.
    FIRE UPDATE: Fire District releases photos of kitten saved from Orland Park apartment fire Saturday
    October 26, 2025
John Kass Columns

Order the book PoweR PR; Ethnic Activists Guide to Strategic Communications

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE TO RAY HANANIA'S YOUTUBE VIDEOS


Click here to view the video on YouTube or use the widget below.

Follow Ray Hanania at
Twitter
Facebook
TitkTok
BlueSky
RayHanania Columns

Creative Commons License
All works on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Do not edit original work. Give credit to the original source.

Categories

Copyright © 2022 Suburban Chicagoland & Urban Strategies Group

Powered by PressBook Premium theme