Post photo: Girls with masks | © Gerd Altmann on Pixabay
There are countless reasons in Heilbronn why we have been struggling with high incidences for months. But what we don't have in Heilbronn are people who feel responsible for it or who would be willing to take on responsibility.
Right from the start, information about the pandemic and possible countermeasures in our city has been poor or non-existent, as have signs for wearing masks, which you still have to look for and can then occasionally find in the most interesting places.
You can see very well how those responsible for this information notices are presented when you leave Heilbronn by car on the B27 in the direction of Lauffen, because there one is mounted on the back of the town sign.
From the beginning there are also hardly any controls to see. The best example I know is one from the regulatory office - which is now posing so nicely as a police agency - when two "officials" saw supposed trouble and, to my astonishment, turned away. They probably had a bad conscience themselves and had to compensate for this immediately, as shortly afterwards an elderly lady I knew came around the corner with a ticket because she had not leashed her two-pound dog.
Next is a police patrol with us — we on foot, in the car — strolling through the pedestrian zone, ignoring very obvious violations by younger crowds — I suspect police officers are forbidden to get out of their cars when the temperature is below zero.
But there are supposed to have been controls, at least that's what I read in the newspaper.
But if I only look at the two Whitsun walks from today and yesterday, I have to realize that two days are enough not only to more than fill the wastepaper baskets, but dozens of people continue to cavort without any distance from each other and of course without masks through the pedestrian zones and enjoy the good weather. Or they sit in large numbers on the banks of the Neckar. Our fellow citizens are also granted both, but this does not promote a reduction in incidence!
The apparent lack of city controls today also meant that I could have shopped at two retailers on my walk alone or had my fingernails painted at a nail salon.
In these cases, however, I assume that this could be regulated by better information for retailers and service providers - the signs intended for this are probably hanging in some basement of our city administration, way down.
"It is the responsibility of all who live in freedom to speak their minds. Always!"
Morgan Freeman, Stern #36/2008 (28 August 2008: 144)
