, Columnist
Democracy and Dead Wood
Frank Barry is journeying west in a Winnebago to take the pulse of America. This week, he finds a climate of collaboration amid disaster.
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The mayor of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has just finished his 14-day Covid quarantine. “I’m fine,” Brad Hart says. “My energy level is back. That was really it. It was just congestion and being really, really tired.”
A month before, he had issued a mask order. He would’ve done it sooner, but the governor told localities it was illegal. He eventually decided to act anyway: “We just think it’ll give some businesses a little more cover when they put up signs saying they have to wear a mask.”