[LSTOWELL]

Originally Posted by Dcurrie911

The US government has chosen to close 10’s of thousands if not 100’s of thousands of small business while Walmart is allowed to sell anything from underwear to fishing lures. Surely forcing many thousands of businesses into bankruptcy. Worse yet the various government agencies disallowed church services on one of the most holy days of Christian belief. And yet all I seem to hear around here is “ please mr. government help us, tell us what else we need to do, shut down, or disallow? Please help us...”

Our community (55+) should be the most vocal against this abuse of government power. Help the younger people to understand that this great country was not built on socialistic government control. Yes, they (the government) should apply all resources to finding a treatment, a vaccine, and informing the citizens of the best way to combat it. And yes, every individual and business owner should be free to choose to stay home or close it’s doors. And yes every church should decide what is best for their parishioners . But the government has vastly overstepped their moral and ethical bounds. Yes, they have the “right” to do what they have done only because they wrote it into their own laws and we the people choose to let them do it. But lessons need to be learned and the government needs to hear that they are out of line, else the next time they will encroach even further onto our civil liberties.

Let the shooting of the messenger begin!....

If we all did what you suggest thousands more would be dead,packing churches,you'd want schools open too,..non essential business people would die cuzz all the people going in their stores and restaurants would get them sick..
Your children and grandchildren would die due to the ignorance and selfishness of other human beings.yourself included

[pianoman88]

...and invoking the Founding Fathers is a clear indication that you do not know American History. These are the men who granted the right to vote to ONLY land-owning men. The men who counted non-whites as 1/2 a person. The men who were clearly the elitists of their day, and had little regard for less advantaged among them. They were brilliant enough write a Constitution that would allow the government to evolve over the years, to recognize that a despot could be elected and limited Presidential power, and purposely had just enough 'wiggle room' in their language to ensure ratification, yet allow for progress. I do believe the Founders would be astounded at the USA of today. But they would be aghast at our interpretations of certain parts of their creation. They would shake their heads in wonderment at things like the Second Amendment being used to justify AR15s in the hands of urban thugs.

[HelenLCSW]

Originally Posted by drpepper

I believe 100% that you are correct. We will look back on this and find that all the shutdowns were an over reaction to what was reported to us and that the virus wasn't near as deadly as 1st reported. One positive would be less dependence on China possibly.

What do you say now when It is now 2 months later and you see that everything the infectious disease people were telling us was true. This is not a political issue —this was clearly a pandemic early on.

[tomhinz]

If the government wouldn't have did what they did, we would have had hundreds of more cases of the virus and deaths and I am sure people would be complaining about that also.

[Jacksig]

The "US Government" does not have the authority nor did it shut down anything. That was up to each State. Please at least start with the facts. Sate and Local Gov'ts instituted each shut down

[John_W]

Originally Posted by Westie Man

Vote against the church closers

I saw a sheriff on TV this morning address that very issue. They are not stopping you from worshiping, but where and how you can worship. Sometimes you have to figure things out for yourself, the government can't hold your hand all the time. However, if you don't use common sense, they have to protect you from yourself.

[jbrown132]

In the state where I come from Walmart can only sell food, just like any other grocery store.

[ficoguy]

Is the government ever really sorry?

[ficoguy]

it was 2/3 of a person.

[Twiganne]

I believe the point the man was making is just how far will this go. If it goes too far this time what about the next. Yes I understand his point but at this time we have to do as instructed as not to infect ourselves or others. Also the government has no authority to shut things down but the governors of each state do. It called states rights and the founding fathers wrote it that way. The government has no power over the states unless it is to mandate the federal laws on the books. The governors have to manage each state as they see fit. There are other states with fewer cases that are wide open. The governor sets the guidelines for each state though the take their cue from the federal government recommendations.

[john352]

If the government ordered a curfew was for our area because of louting of homes damaged by a tornado, I suspect that you would call that encroachment of our civil liberties. Your post has many misleading statements.

Because of the US Constitution, only that states have the power to order the closure of businesses and only within that state’s jurisdiction. For this emergency, the US government established guidelines that included social distancing. The states and local governments then issued local orders based on the emergency guidelines. In our area, non-essential businesses were ordered to close; but, grocery stores were considered essential businesses. Walmart’s grocery business is considered “essential.” If Walmart had stopped people from buying “underwear to fishing lures,” then extremists would be posting complaints calling that erosion of our civil liberties.

[croughwell]

Unfortunately, people are idiots and so many refused to follow the guidelines forcing TV to close pools if you remember. There are lots of self-entitled villages here. Lot of people who think they should be able to do what they want, when they want... They are more important than anyone.

The government closed nonessential business because if not, everyone would have been out... business as usual!

[roenstad]

Over reaction ?!? I think 20,000 people would disagree with you- if they still had a voice. That’s the latest count of the dead - as of today.

[ficoguy]

Originally Posted by John_W

I saw a sheriff on TV this morning address that very issue. They are not stopping you from worshiping, but where and how you can worship. Sometimes you have to figure things out for yourself, the government can't hold your hand all the time. However, if you don't use common sense, they have to protect you from yourself.

Not saying what denominations or sects, but look at the hot spots in NJ and you will see....

[ficoguy]

Originally Posted by pianoman88

...and invoking the Founding Fathers is a clear indication that you do not know American History. These are the men who granted the right to vote to ONLY land-owning men. The men who counted non-whites as 1/2 a person. The men who were clearly the elitists of their day, and had little regard for less advantaged among them. They were brilliant enough write a Constitution that would allow the government to evolve over the years, to recognize that a despot could be elected and limited Presidential power, and purposely had just enough 'wiggle room' in their language to ensure ratification, yet allow for progress. I do believe the Founders would be astounded at the USA of today. But they would be aghast at our interpretations of certain parts of their creation. They would shake their heads in wonderment at things like the Second Amendment being used to justify AR15s in the hands of urban thugs.

I think the land ownership thing was tied to English law, which is really what 90% of the constitution was based on. Land owners had rights, but they also had skin in the game.