Big Mack to go

And we're back, with a story that was all over antisocial media last week, and I didn't see a lot of divided opinion about it. It's about the female college student from Georgia who went to the Cayman Islands to visit her boyfriend, broke Covid-19 quarantine rules, got caught, and was sentenced to four months in prison down there in tropical paradise.

People here in non-tropical paradisiacal Baltimore were upset to see that her sentence was cut in half to two months. 

Her name is Skylar Mack, because no one knows how to type "Schuyler" (the correct spelling of the name) on a birth certificate. At 18, she saw fit to leave Georgia to hang with her boyfriend, one Vanjae Ramgeet, 24, ostensibly to work on her Jane Austen term paper for English Lit 101. He received an identical sentence and an identical reduction.

Meanwhile, Jonathon Hughes, their attorney, said the couple accepts the decision of the court (how noble) but points out they had hoped "Skylar would be able to return home to resume her studies in January."

"Ms. Mack and Mr. Ramgeet continue to express remorse for their actions and ask for the forgiveness of the people of the Cayman Islands," he said.

She is a pre-med student (maybe next time, study some law?). She left for the islands in late November to go see this Ramgeet participate in a jet-ski race. She tested negative for the Rona before leaving, and tested negative again upon arrival. Nevertheless, she was told to isolate for two weeks.

Nevertheless, Skylar refused to follow this order and was seen at the competition two days later. People at the race knew she was non-compliant and reported her. Officials arrested her, and pinched Ramgeet, whom they say "aided and abetted her in the breach." 

Off to try out her new cell phone

First of all, it doesn't matter that she was pre-med or was a basket-weaving major. At 18, if she wishes to jet around the world, she needs to learn to follow the rules and laws. Sure, being at the race was bound to be more fun that staying in her room for two weeks, but them's the breaks nowadays.

Americans, once the envy and pride of the world at large, are now objects of scorn because so many of us absolutely refuse to heed to directives of educated health professionals, choosing instead to abide by the advice of "Joey" from Facebook, who says "it's a known fact" that "masks don't work." 

We hate being told what to do, so we don't, and then when we get tossed in some foreign Walled-Off Astoria, we have our grandparents whine about it on CNN. Of course, a lot of this comes from our being a country where even when you lose an election, you just claim you really won, uh huh.