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False Dichotomy
Jun. 10th, 2022 11:58 amThere have not been many people complaining directly to Westercon 74 about our vaccination-and-masking policy. What they don't seem to get is that the choice is not between holding the convention with our policy or holding it without such a policy. It is between holding the convention with our policy or not holding it at all because you can't run a Westercon without a committee, and nearly every member of the committee and staff would have walked away without the policy we have. Maybe you disagree with our decision, but you are not the people volunteering to run the convention, spending your own time and money to do the work to put on the event.
I hear people saying, "But the government isn't requiring it anymore." That's right, they're not. But we're not holding the convention in a state that actively wants to make people sick. (I'm looking at you, Florida.) Private entities can set whatever rules they want, and our committee — it wasn't just my decision; we discussed it at great length — decided that this is what we wanted. We did lose one committee member over it, and I understand their position; however, the rest of the committee backed this, and we're the ones who are making the convention happen.
Those people who think we shouldn't require masking and vaccination should go out and run their own conventions. If they make it very clear what they're doing, the rest of us will know to stay far away from their event or anyone attending it, because based on what I've seen, they're going to spread more disease and will spend their time denying that it was their own fault.
Meanwhile, today I am printing the cover of the Westercon 74 program book. It takes vastly longer to print than the inside pages, and because the cover pages do not have page numbers on them and the material was ready to go now, I could set it to printing well in advance of us finalizing the layout of the interior pages.
I hear people saying, "But the government isn't requiring it anymore." That's right, they're not. But we're not holding the convention in a state that actively wants to make people sick. (I'm looking at you, Florida.) Private entities can set whatever rules they want, and our committee — it wasn't just my decision; we discussed it at great length — decided that this is what we wanted. We did lose one committee member over it, and I understand their position; however, the rest of the committee backed this, and we're the ones who are making the convention happen.
Those people who think we shouldn't require masking and vaccination should go out and run their own conventions. If they make it very clear what they're doing, the rest of us will know to stay far away from their event or anyone attending it, because based on what I've seen, they're going to spread more disease and will spend their time denying that it was their own fault.
Meanwhile, today I am printing the cover of the Westercon 74 program book. It takes vastly longer to print than the inside pages, and because the cover pages do not have page numbers on them and the material was ready to go now, I could set it to printing well in advance of us finalizing the layout of the interior pages.
