Saturday, May 2, 2020

Government Mandated Shutdown


I was asked to speak for a few minutes at the business revival meeting at Vineyard today. Sometime between 3 and 4. The event starts at noon.

They already have a bunch of speakers. I spoke to Eric who is leading this celebration. He knows I don't agree with him on everything.

I do believe the government has overstepped the constitutional authority we gave them. I also believe in following the law and getting laws changed. We need to rescue the small businesses. The economy and food and farmers and everything has been hit hard. We need to save this country from socialism and the last 2 months have not helped.

Many people have been traumatised by earthquakes and deaths in addition to this Coved-19 virus. If that means someone is going to feel better if I wear a mask or if I am going to feel better in some situations to wear a mask, that needs to be OK. I have one or two I can wear.

Our governor and mayors and health dept officials need to know that many of us find the past several weeks of government mandated shutdown not acceptable. They can not be repeated.

We need to work on principle. Businesses should be able to keep their staff and customers safe and be able to be open. This next "phase" is where we needed to be seven weeks ago.

A couple of weeks ago, when the Governor had this idea of telling people crossing into Utah they needed to fill out papers, I said this:

Most people in this state feel that a mayor or governor shutting down private businesses generally or by category and requiring papers to travel is an abuse of power and is not constitutional. Period.

We have shut down a restaurant for norovirus or other reasons before. This is not the same. There is no reason each and every business can't figure out a way to stay safe and stay open. I have been working from home generally. That doesn't work to go visit a building.

Most people are doing their best to wash hands and keep distances. That is a good thing for now.

The last thing we need is the government taking over everything.

Be civil. Be caring. Be safe. Be free.

update, a copy of the introduction and actual remarks is at: https://youtu.be/QNcL5--h-m8