OPINION:
A message for various segments of America.
• Defenders of lengthy stay-at-home orders: Stop pretending that anyone who is asking for a reasonable plan to get back to work is not concerned about the health and safety of others. In addition to restaurants, taverns and thousands of other small businesses, there are many hospitals, clinics and doctors offices closed that are not treating people with COVID-19 or immediate emergency cases. Early detection is often the key to surviving cancer and other serious diseases, and that is not happening when medical professionals are not able to see patients for extended periods of time. We need them back.
• Abortion industry: Having an abortion is an elective procedure and it is not essential. The late Dr. Bernard Nathanson of the American Bioethics Advisory Commission stated, “There are no conceivable clinical situations today where abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. In fact, if her health is threatened and an abortion is performed, the abortion increases risks the mother will incur regarding her health.”
• Overly aggressive local officials: People sitting in their own cars listening to a drive-in church service are not a threat to the health and safety of your communities. Officers who write citations with their gloveless hands to then present them to people after making them lower their windows are a threat to the health of everyone in that parking lot.
• Protesters: Stop showing up without masks on and standing too close to people you don’t live with. And certainly don’t show up at these events if you are sick! I share many of your frustrations with the government. To reopen the economy, though, we need to show people that we can continue to abide by the health guidelines while going back to work. Failure to do so only gives them more reasons to keep us at home.
• Opponents of a reasonable plan to reopen the economy: People have been safely going to grocery stores, pharmacies and other “essential” businesses throughout the lockdown. Apply the same standards to other places. If employees can follow the guidelines — such as staying six feet apart from others and wearing a mask - businesses should be allowed to gradually reopen under the same guidelines.
• Power Hungry Elected Officials: Telling people they can’t go fishing on a lake where they are far away from other boats or that they can’t go to a hunting cabin they have in the woods is not about protecting the health and safety of your citizens. Telling people who are already in a store that they can’t get seeds to plant a garden to feed your family, yet you can purchase a lottery ticket or have an abortion does not make sense. Stop the encroachment on our individual liberties.
• Members of Congress: Stop adding political pork to pieces of legislation that are supposed to help victims of the coronavirus crisis. Tens of millions of dollars for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., is not critical to our recovery. Watch out for federal lawmakers waiting to pass trillions more in new spending filled with special interest projects. For example, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others are asking for $4 billion in new funding for museums and cultural non-profit organizations, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City — which already has a $3.6 billion endowment.
• Public debt holders: Be forewarned that the federal government is fast approaching its limit. The current national debt in America is more than $24 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office already projected a more than $1 trillion deficit in 2020, the new coronavirus legislation costs about $2 trillion and the actions of the Federal Reserve are projected to cost $4 trillion. In total, that means the entire federal debt will exceed $30 trillion yet this year.
• Officials with oversight at prisons and jails: Stop letting criminals out of prison or jail. And stop being surprised when they commit crimes once they are released from confinement. They are criminals. Criminals commit crimes. That’s literally what they do.
• China: You could have done more to warn the world, yet you seem to be satisfied with covering up what happened in Wuhan. We will not forget. Expect Americans to demand that more of our business returns to the United States — particularly in areas like pharmaceuticals.
• Anyone with authority: Explain why you are doing things before you tell us what you want us to do.
• Media: Just give us the facts. Please.
• Political operatives: Please stop rooting for the other side to screw up or say something ridiculous so you can pounce on it. Now is not the time to score political points. We need to work together to defeat the coronavirus, get people back to work and protect our individual liberties.
• Health care professionals and all other essential workers: THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS.
• Scott Walker was the 45th governor of Wisconsin. You can contact him at swalker@washingtontimes.com or follow him @ScottWalker.
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