what bothered me about this article is the total lack of respect shown to you. And I say this as someone far more cavalier than you are, but, I still support your right to protect yourself.

I live in Texas. For my birthday, I was taken out to brunch by several friends a couple of weeks ago. One friend explained that, due to her husband's health issues, she would need to eat on the patio if she was to join us, and we would need to be masked until we were seated.

So, what did we do? We acted like respectful adults and made sure our friend felt safe.

If a waitress can't sing frigging happy birthday because she doesn't want to get sick - that should be respected and she should not be deprived of her tip.

All of this is just fricking common sense. Why are people such narcissists? My rights are important, but not more important than yours.

I have friends who are not vaccinated. I am against mandates imposed by the government. BUT I think the other side of that is that everyone can make the sensible choice of not being around unvaccinated people.

I still see unvaccinated friends, but I do insist on certain boundaries. But I also have friends who no longer include them in gatherings. And fortunately my unvaccinated friends respectfully call in on Zoom and don't insist on an in-person meeting.

If you can't respect a friend's decision to protect their own health, you are not a friend.