As Tennessee sets new records in the spread of COVID-19, Governor Lee and county mayors are employing the time-honored strategy of sloughing the blame for a problem onto the victims.

The state, Lee said, will not impose a mask mandate. Governor Lee shirked his responsibility July 3 kicking the politically unpalatable can of worms down the road to the county mayors.

The blame sloughing continued in Bedford County. For his part, Bedford County Mayor Chad Graham sent out a news release saying he “continued to closely study the local COVID-19 situation and has consulted with a variety of officials this week on the issue and determined that requiring people to wear masks in public would present a variety of challenges” and he’s just not ready for a variety of challenges.

Graham does not say in his latest news release what the “variety of challenges” are but one can safely assume the big one is he doesn’t think it’s practical to round up and arrest or ticket all the scofflaws – those who would refuse to comply.

“We don’t have the resources to police all that anyway,” Mayor Graham said in an interview in last month. “If we did what would we do with them? Take them all to jail?”

If the county did impose a mask mandate, the violation would not be an incarceration offense, it would be a summons akin to jaywalking or a ticket for speeding. The value of imposing a mandate would be that many more people, realizing it’s law, would comply. People do change their behavior to comply with a law. A verbal warning from a police officer would be enough to get most people to wear a mask in public.

Radio host and columnist Phil Valentine wrote this week that not enough people have died in Williamson County to warrant a mask requirement. “So, we’re going to tell nearly a quarter of a million people to wear a mask everywhere they go because fewer than a dozen people have died? I don’t think so,” he writes, apparently with great indignation. I wonder if the families of the “fewer than a dozen” people who died agree with Valentine? “How many deaths will it take ’til he knows that too many people have died?” wrote Bob Dylan in his song “Blowing in the Wind.” Phil is braying in the wind.

“Which brings me to my new hero, Andy Ogles,” wrote Valentine in his weekly blog. “Andy is the mayor of neighboring Maury County. He boldly announced that he ‘took an oath to defend our constitution’ and said he ‘intended to do so.’ With that he announced ‘there will be no mask mandate in Maury County.’ That’s called leadership. He urged social distancing and supported a business’s right to require you to wear a mask, but he understands the limits of his power. He also understands what freedom really means.” To quote another song with lyrics that seem relevant, this one by Kris Kristofferson, “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” Wearing a mask is not about freedom, it’s about public health.

Mayor Ogles’ exact words: “We are having the wrong conversation. We are debating masks when we should be discussing liberty, freedom and personal responsibility. I took an oath to defend our constitution and I will do so.”

I wonder how Valentine and his newfound hero, Mayor Ogles, square onerous motorist seatbelt requirements with their professed Constitutional right to do whatever the hell they want.

A ditty making the rounds on social media uses humor to make the point about government’s responsibility to protect the public. It appears to have been written by libbyjones715 on Twitter.

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Some of you may get sick, but almost everyone survives food poisoning. We think you’ll agree that it’s a small price to pay for the sweet freedom of no one ever being told what to do - and especially not for the silly reason of keeping strangers healthy.