As an Arkansan and an American, I am signing this petition to call for the reversal of the decision by governor Asa Hutchinson to require face coverings for all individuals in Arkansas. This is a clear violation of our rights. I am in agreement with State Representative Rebecca Petty of Bentonville and Rogers when she says "the decision is an overreach by the governor." She goes on to say, "This is extremely frustrating because “we the people,” have no voice."

It is time that our voices are heard, and it is time the truth be told about the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of wearing face masks. The information we have been given is misleading and deceptive. In an interview with CBS in March, Tony Fauci said this about wearing face masks, "There is no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you are in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet, but it is not providing a perfect protection that people think it is."

Dr. Fauci now says he only said that to make sure there was an ample supply of masks for healthcare workers. Now Dr. Fauci says, "I am convinced that the benefit of wearing a mask is clearly there." So, which is it? If his first statement is true then his second statement is false. However, if his second statement is true then his first statement was a deception. In either case, it seems he has deceived the people.

A study cited by The BMJ, "A cluster-randomized trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers", states, "This study is the first RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in an increased risk of infection."

On June 5th of this year, the World Health Organization released "Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19."

"At present, there is no direct evidence (from studies on COVID19 and in healthy people in the community) on the effectiveness of universal masking of healthy people in the community to prevent infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19."

In January the CDC released a statement not recommending people use face masks to prevent Coronavirus. Like Dr. Fauci, they now say they were afraid of supplies for healthcare workers being depleted. So, they were going to let the common person be exposed to this deadly virus but not tell them, or was this a deception as well?

Finally, an April study published in Nature stated, "Among the samples collected without a face mask, we found that the majority of participants with influenza virus and coronavirus infection did not shed detectable virus in respiratory droplets or aerosols...For those who did shed virus in respiratory droplets and aerosols, viral load in both tended to be low."

These results are all taken from scientific studies. It is important that we use facts in making critical decisions like mandating face masks. In contrast, those who push for mandating face masks use fear, inflated numbers, deception, and emotional tactics to try to convince us to give up our rights and liberties.

While the mandating of face masks may seem insignificant, the fact remains it is but one more step to the government abusing its power to strip us of all our individual rights as human beings.

We believe it is the right of every individual to wear a face mask if they so choose, but requiring that everyone wears a face mask is a violation of our rights and an abuse of power by the governor of Arkansas. It should be up to each individual as to whether or not they will wear a mask in public places.

We call the governor of the great state of Arkansas to reverse this mandate and refrain from any further violations of our individual rights and freedoms. We also call on businesses in Arkansas to refrain from requiring face masks to be worn by customers, as well as employees.