It is easy to lay down on a street for a few minutes, to rage and swear at police, to accuse them of all sorts of despicable actions and evil attitudes and toss off demands for sweeping systemic reform.
It is especially easy with the police protecting you from getting run over.
It is a whole lot harder to be the radically changed police you want to see.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” That advice is widely attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, but those are not exactly his words. What he said was:
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”
Michael Jackson put it this way: “I’m starting with man in the mirror…If you want the world to be a better place, take a look at yourself then change your ways.”
How many of those kids who want better cops can find in themselves the commitment, strength, courage and dedication to be one of those better cops?
I can’t directly ask any of those high schoolers if they would consider a career in law enforcement to demonstrate in their working life the changes they want to see. It would be inappropriate for me to message or call them to ask this question. I would have to go through each of their parents before I could speak with them. Instead, I will put that question to the young people and their parents at the end of this article.
To make it more palatable in the current environment, let’s call police officers “public safety officers.” That still covers what police do but adds a somewhat politically correct cachet to their job duties.
So how many of those vocal people condemning police, demanding change, demanding accountability, training, disarmament are willing to be those same peace officers, and practice what they preach?
The politicians with the bullhorns, grabbing attention and angling for more power for themselves, bossing others around–they’re not going to help drunks from choking on their own vomit, or risk life and limb to restrain an enraged husband who has been beating the life out of his wife, or pull broken bodies from a car wreck, or disarm a man cranked on Lord-knows-what brandishing a machete in a homeless camp.
Those politicians who engage in social justice performance art by draping themselves in Kinte cloth and kneeling for a few minutes, they are not going to step out of the safety of their car in pitch blackness on an empty road to approach a vehicle fitting the description of a car that just pulled away from a drive-by shooting.
They will never respond to an armed robbery in progress and realize they will be a target for bullets as soon as they arrive at the scene.
Or be the officer responding to a call of a strong arm robbery at a minority-owned business, and roll up on Michael Brown because he matches the description of one of the robbers, then have a split second to react when he reaches inside the patrol car to grab a gun.
Or endure getting hit with bricks and bottles to protect Black owned businesses from a mob with crowbars and Molotov cocktails.
Or respond to a call of a man trying to pass counterfeit money and find it is George Floyd.
But those impassioned young people calling for justice and an end to violence can be the man or woman in uniform who saves the Black lives they want to matter, while still upholding the law.
Forget the pandering politicians. They are just cashing in on tragedy. The kind of change being demanded would likely put them out of a job. Real change is always left to individuals willing to go out on the streets, to patrol isolated roads alone, to avoid being pricked by used syringes while pulling a hungry, battered child from a locked closet. It is people who care less about themselves than they do others who are willing to put themselves between an attacker and his victims. And they do this all for a hell of a lot less pay and publicity than the people chairing the next televised hearing about the hottest issue of the day.
Parents marched with their children at the protest that blocked Sims Way. They were proud of the spirit and organizational skills of their sons and daughters. They were proud they had raised young people who would boldly speak out for a better world.
How many of those parents are encouraging their children to enter the field of law enforcement–make that peace keeping, excuse me–to live the ideals they want others to honor?
I know those parents and some of the young people who participated in the June 5 demonstration are reading this. I have seen them in our comments or on other Facebook pages talking about what we write here. If any of them are willing to live to be the examples of the reformed, racially sensitive, non-violent peace officers they want, please say so below or on our Facebook page. If you won’t step up here, maybe because of peer pressure right now against even saying good things about police, keep your resolve strong and contact our local law enforcement. Get to know them, visit them at work, and see if you can ride along sometime to see what it takes to be a peace officer in the real world. I hope you will be inspired, because the people you will be riding with are. It’s why they do their jobs.
[Hat tip to author Joseph Ranseth for associating the faux-Gandhi quote with Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”]
Jefferson County has gone all in on community masking. On June 5 Dr. Thomas Locke, Jefferson County Public Health Officer, issued a directive requiring that masks be worn in all indoor spaces. Just wander around town and look in the windows and on the doors of local businesses. From what I see, Dr. Thomas Locke is at risk of being promoted to the unenviable position of High Inquisitor of Public Health. Business owners in our county have been involuntarily recruited as enforcement goons. If life imitates art, next to arrive will be the inquisitorial squads.
Just in case you weren’t paying attention, (don’t worry I am), on that same day the World Health Organization issued their updated Advice On The Use Of Masks in the context of Covid 19. Deep in the weeds of the document I found this information, which has not changed since the last update on April 6th.
At present there is no direct evidence (from studies on Covid 19 and in healthy people in the community) on the effectiveness of universal masking of healthy people in the community to prevent infection with respiratory viruses, including Covid 19.
Still undecided? Maybe a recent letter originating from infectious disease experts at the University of Washington and signed by some twelve hundred doctors, medical experts, and whoever happened to be sitting at their computer when the signature request arrived, will help settle the mask debate. Or, If you are suffering from riot video binging induced insomnia, it might help you get back to sleep. Either way, here are the core messages delivered to us by academics at University of Washington:
A) The anti-masking and stay at home order protests of a month ago, where thousands were disobeying masking and social distance decrees, must be condemned by health experts because these actions “not only oppose public health interventions, but are also rooted in white nationalism and run contrary to respect for black lives.”
B) The Black Lives Matter protests of recent days, where thousands were also disobeying masking and social distance decrees, should not be condemned by health experts as a danger to public welfare because “White supremacy is a lethal public health issue” and the demonstrations are “Vital to the national public health”
In a desperate attempt to clear the fog of confusion and hypocrisy that has descended upon us, I went to the website of the American Council on Science and Health whose mission is to promote science and debunk junk. They can usually be relied upon for solid, fact-base, opinions.
In an article dated April 1st, 2020 and titled, Corona Virus, Is It Time to Consider Face Masks for Civilians, Dr. Chuck Dinerstein, M.D., M.B.A. reviews what is known and what he has learned from people whose opinion he trusts and makes this final tepid conclusion; “There is little downside to wearing a mask when you venture out of your home, and the real possibility of an upside benefit.”
I could say the same thing about wearing my underwear on the outside of my pants. Let’s hope the Health Department doesn’t get any ideas about this.
In all seriousness, it should be increasingly clear, that we are being lied to by those who wish to consolidate their power and undermine our freedoms. This cannot continue.
If you are wearing a mask and it makes you feel better, than by all means don’t stop.
If you aren’t wearing a mask and somebody objects, just say you are protesting injustice.
Once again the experts were wrong. We were warned that those reckless and irresponsible people on the steps of the Capitol in mid-April protesting the statewide lockdown would cause a spike in COVID cases. Unmasked cries of “Give me liberty or give me death!” would guarantee both for foolish freedom lovers.
The first organized protests against Governor Inslee’s order started sporadically across Washington within three weeks of his Stay at Home edict. They culminated in the first large rally on April 19 attended by thousands of protestors. Port Townsend Free Press contributor Tod Brundage was there and wrote about that event: Face Toward the Enemy: Protesting Governor Inslee’s Stay At Home Order.
More than six weeks have passed. The COVID virus manifests itself within 10 to 14 days of exposure. Tod Brundage is doing just fine and there have been no reports of any attendees at the Capitol rally getting sick.
Olympia is in Thurston County, which has not experienced an explosion of COVID cases and was green-lighted to move into Phase 2 due to its low infection rate. The Thurston County Department of Health reports that 9,233 people have been tested with only 2% coming back positive. Only one person has died in that county of a COVID-related illness.
On May 19, the Reopen Jeffco: Rally for Civil Rights and Justice event was held in Port Townsend, attended by just under 100 people at its peak. Only one protester wore a mask. The gestational period for the virus has passed. No one who attended the rally got sick or has been diagnosed with the virus. (A child, with no symptoms of fever, wracking cough, etc. was on June 1, reported to have tested positive during routine screening at the hospital. That child’s family did not participate in the rally, and is it not yet known how the child was exposed.)
For about a month now, a weekly Freedom Rally has been held in Port Angeles, growing larger every week. None of the protestors have gotten sick or been diagnosed with the virus.
An anti-lock down rally of hundreds of people was held in Lynden in Whatcom County a month ago. That county has seen no spike in COVID cases.
There have been rolling protests across the state, with large rallies in Spokane Yakima, Richland and Snohomish County, to smaller demonstrations in Tacoma, Sequim, Monroe, Leavenworth, Wenatchee and elsewhere. Not one public authority has linked any new COVID diagnosis to a demonstration. (The new Yakima cases have been identified as arising in nursing homes and agricultural industry settings).
As the late Fred Ward would say, “Whaw hoppened?”
Public health authorities seem to have been avoiding an answer to that question. Those that condemned the protests in advance have been silent since. Thousands more people are tested every week. The new positive diagnoses are reported to be among mostly the nursing home population, followed by agricultural industry workers, health care workers and those in contact with people in those groups. Not one press conference or news release from the Governor of Department of Health identifies any rally as the cause of new infections.
It is not this writer’s place to speculate as to why the dire predictions failed, only to observe that, once again, the experts and doomsayers were wrong. We deserve an explanation from officials who attempted to use fear to suppress peaceable assemblies. In that answer may lie truths about the limits of the COVID threat we need to know, and which can better inform our decision makers.
As for the riots and looting we’ve seen this past week, the jury is still out whether they will be the super-spreder events Governor Inslee thought would result from the peaceful protests targeting him. When the City of Seattle announced it was organizing a street protest of the killing of George Floyd, we note he issued no statements condemning that effort for creating an unreasonable risk of spreading the COVID virus.
Some of the people wearing them are proclaiming that maskless people are ignorant at best, and “Killing People!” at worst.
The people not wearing masks are confounded by the people who are wearing masks, while driving in a car solo with the windows rolled up.
We all can agree that it would be ideal if people who are sick with a respiratory virus should wear a mask so as not to spread disease from exhalations of the mouth and nose. That is what masks are designed for and how they function.
All of us aren’t sick. In fact, a great majority of us are not any more sick than we were before this all started.
A few months ago we were told millions would die and our health care system would collapse.
That hasn’t happened.
What has happened is that small businesses have been decimated and 38 million people have filed for unemployment because of two months of shut downs prescribed by the people that told us millions would die and our healthcare system would collapse.
Some in the population have been paralyzed by fear and demand that we keep everything closed, especially everything that might bring in outsiders even though the Jefferson County public health officer, Dr. Thomas Locke, has stated there is no evidence of tourists spreading the virus. But never mind and, just in case, everyone should be required to wear a mask under penalty of law.
Many in the population are watching their business or their employer’s business built with blood, sweat, tears, life savings, and second mortgages, burn to the ground in the flames of political dithering, while the authorities threaten to sue them and, or, pull their business licenses if they dare to open. The last thing these people are thinking about is wearing a mask.
If you are wearing a mask and it makes you feel better, then by all means don’t stop.
If you aren’t wearing a mask, just know there are many more of us than there are of them.
Pro-democracy protesters wear face masks in Hong Kong. Those masks don’t make the protestors any less courageous or determined. They don’t silence their voices one bit. Indeed, they started wearing masks last year after the totalitarian Chinese government banned face coverings. They wear their masks not only against a virus, but also against tear gas.
In the United States, we’d be more inclined to accept masks if they had not been turned into a virtue signal, a sign of surrender to conformity and the Left’s agenda to mold all into their image and thought patterns. It certainly would also have helped if the experts had not lost so much of their credibility.
And it would definitely help if our Public Health Officer stayed out of politics. Dr. Thomas Locke has hurt his credibility in this county by stepping out of the role of an objective epidemiologist to make subjective and inherently political decisions as to whose job, business, and livelihood he sees as “high” value and whose job, business, and livelihood he is willing to trash because to him it just doesn’t seem as worthy.
He is also outside his proper role when he goes off about some politicians using masks “as a wedge issue” and mocking the concerns of protestors, many of whom have had their lives destroyed while the politically privileged continue to get paychecks and large corporations escape the pain inflicted on small businesses. Not long ago he recklessly accused the state of Georgia of “recklessly” reopening, when data shows a resurging Georgia economy but steep drops in hospitalizations and deaths. He has yet to retract that accusation, nor has he acknowledged that the CDC has reduced by 13 times the transmission rate of the virus. If you want a job on MSNBC as a partisan pundit, go for it, Dr. Locke. But don’t think we don’t see you yourself using masks as a wedge issue when you spout off like that.
You told the County Commissioners you need to do a better job of messaging to break down the resistance to wearing masks. You certainly do.
Back to those Hong Kong protestors.
They are fearless. They don’t hide, they don’t accept censorship, they accept punishment for speaking out.
I would propose we follow their lead. Governor Inslee has made himself a dictator, let’s not deny that. We don’t face the same repression as the Hong Kong protestors, but we do strive for the same thing: democracy, recognition of individual rights, the rule of law. Inslee’s lock down order, his unilateral extension of his omnipotence, his arbitrary and unchecked power to declare who and what is “essential” or not, his constantly moving goal posts to further extend his unchecked powers…this is dictatorship. We should and must speak against it and push back, especially since our Governor has been so wrong and has caused so much unnecessary suffering, from destroyed jobs and businesses, to crippling the healthcare industry, to causing a tidal wave of health problems unrelated to COVID but directly caused by his vague, poorly drafted orders that prevented physicians and hospitals from providing urgent care to thousands.
Jefferson County is going to get a masking directive. It’s coming and we can’t stop it. I’ve been donning a mask for the past months as I enter stores. I understand the theory that a mask will prevent one’s “droplets” from spreading. It’s not a perfect barrier but it is still a barrier. A cloth mask will not protect me, hardly at all, I also understand that. And if a business asks customers to wear a mask, I don’t mind complying. I see that request as similar to a “no shoes, no service” rule.
I also wear a mask in sympathy with oppressed business owners. Inslee–and Locke, with the considerable powers granted Public Health Officers–can snuff out their livelihoods with a word or two. Inslee has weaponized the agency that issues and cancels business licenses to terrify their owners and employees against insubordination. If keeping them open, and getting more to turn on its lights comes at the price of me wearing a mask, that is a small price to pay to win some freedom for my fellow citizens and get Dictator Jay’s jackboot off their necks.
I don’t believe much of what Dr. Locke says anymore. I think he’s exaggerated risks, minimized the terrible costs of the lock down order, and overstepped his authority by engaging in inherently political decisions unrelated to medical science. I barely believe anything Inslee says, a long way from where I was in March when this started. Then I easily accepted losing a chance at urgent surgery in the belief that my hospital bed would be needed by someone struggling for life, a belief I have since learned was based on false information and wildly inaccurate scenarios being fed the public at the time. That was before Inslee’s own mask came off to reveal him as an incompetent and base political operative abusing his self-proclaimed powers.
I intend to use the mask requirement to exercise rather than euthanize my First Amendment rights. Some time ago when I saw this coming, I bought a Trump 2020 face mask. Its blue and red letters stand out starkly against the nice white fabric. I think it will look great as I shop in the Co-op and along Water Street when King Jay lets our stores reopen–stores that he closed while allowing big corporations (political donors, all) to operate with very few restrictions.
I’ve got other masks on order that will be even more entertaining.
If we don’t wear masks those exercising dictatorial powers are going to close, or refuse to reopen businesses and throw more people out of work. They are going to destroy entrepreneurs, the backbone of our economic freedom.
So fine, we’ll wear masks but let’s use it against our oppressors. We don’t have to face clubs and guns and fire hoses–yet. This is nothing, so let’s have some fun with it and use our masks to speak for freedom.
The woman driving the shiny black Range Rover let go of the wheel with both hands. She flipped her middle fingers at the young mother standing at the curb with her children and a sign reading, “Let Me Work.” The woman in the Range Rover was about 60, had her windows up and was wearing disposable blue plastic gloves.
This was only one of the many instances where individuals in expensive vehicles gave the finger or shouted “F^^^ You!” through closed windows at people rallying to reopen Jefferson County and holding such offensive signs as “Every Family Counts,” “Everyone Is Essential,” and “My Family Needs To Eat, Too.”
There was that couple in a grey Mercedes, windows rolled up, of course, who pulled their masks down so they could shout obscenities. There was hate and contempt in their eyes and the way they dragged their teeth across their lower lips as they spit out the “F^^^ YOU!” left no doubt what they felt about the working class parents who wanted their jobs back.
I tossed out the idea for the Reopen Jefferson County rally because our local leaders were frittering away our county’s chance to get a jump on reopening many businesses and nobody was doing anything about it. Little did I know that the Jefferson County Washington Facebook page would pick it up and that among its more than 9,000 followers it would reach women half my age who were already engaged in other forms of activism to reopen our state economy.
One of them, Danielle Galmukoff, a Port Townsend businesswoman whose business, essential to her family’s well-being but deemed expendable by the Governor, was instrumental in forming the Reopen Washington State Facebook page. That resource has connected the unemployed, business owners ordered to shut down and bleed red ink, local officials seeing their communities ravaged not by a virus but by the Governor’s actions and medical patients denied critical care because the Governor had injected himself into the doctor-patient relationship. It has served as an organizing tool for rallies across the state. That group, in part started here, now has over 43,000 participants.
What I saw at the Reopen Jefferson County rally on May 19 was not the aging old guard of the Jefferson County GOP–a few were there, but not in any great numbers. I saw a new generation of people awakened to what happens when an unaccountable government steps out of bounds, plays favorites, makes serious errors, abuses its powers and destroys lives and livelihoods.
The Leader reported 50 people in attendance at the time the reporter arrived. The Peninsula Daily News estimated 75. I counted 95 at the peak. Not a lot, except when you consider the pressure in a tight, insular community that keeps many people from ever speaking out. We learned our support was much broader than we expected. Many businesses encouraged the rally, but said they could not be there for fear of retaliation. One business boldly donated coffee, and said we could announce their name. (Thank you, Velocity Coffee). Many people who identify as progressive, Democrat and left-leaning told the young organizers they were with them, but would not be there for fear of blow-back from the small, rather mean, but powerful and relentless gang of enforcers for the ideological and partisan Left in this town.
Those people with masks in their own cars, flipping us off, they were a small minority of passing motorists. It always surprises me when I participate in events like this, where I think I will be in a tiny, endangered minority, only to find that the act of standing up for what is right draws huge support and emboldens others to make their views known.
It was noisy at that corner by McDonald’s. The big rigs blasting loud notes, drivers standing on their horns, people rolling down their windows to shout encouragement. More than a few drivers in public agency and government vehicles gave us thumbs up.
That evening we learned that the businesses community, as they had told us over the phone, was also for reopening Jefferson County. A poll of hundreds of businesses by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce found that 60% wanted a quick move into the next phase of reopening. The North Hood Canal Chamber of Commerce, which covers the southern part of our county, came back with 87.5% in favor of a quick reopening.
All this time County Commissioner Kate Dean was running around telling officials from other counties and making similar statements in virtual Commission and Board of Health meetings that “the vast majority” of people here were against reopening.
She must have been listening to the older woman in the expensive Range Rover cursing a young working mom for wanting her job back.
The good news is that the county has–finally–applied for a variance from the Governor’s lock down order to allow many businesses to open earlier than the Phase 2 start date for the rest of the state. The bad news is that they spent nearly a month indulging the selfish and unscientific fears of those who don’t need to work and don’t care much about those who do.
The other bad news is that the BOH and County Commission, after dragging out the process so they could hear from “stakeholders”–translated, the businesses hammered by the Governor’s order–dismissed what they were told by those stakeholders and voted to prohibit the reopening of restaurants, in-store retail and other businesses. They have made the further reopening of Jefferson County’s devastated economy contingent on Kitsap and Clallam counties entering Phase 2, either early or with the rest of the state. We have no control over what happens in those counties. Yes, that is crazy, unwise and irresponsible, just another way of kicking the can down the road. But the people driving around with masks, disposable gloves and windows rolled up are happy.
The other good news is that maybe sometime next week, now that the county has finally ended its dithering and submitted its plea to the Governor, more of our businesses will reopen. But at most, because of the county’s delays, we might get just a couple days jump on the rest of the state, now set to move into Phase 2 anyway on June 1.
Questions unasked. Statements and predictions taken at face value. Vague data, ambiguities, and contradictions unaddressed.
Whatever happened to “Question Authority”?
Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Thomas Locke has a huge responsibility and huge powers due to the Governor’s declaration of emergency.
Sure, it is up to the Board of Health to formally approve his recommendations. The Board of County Commissioners has the final vote, as well. But practically speaking, Dr. Thomas Locke, an unelected bureaucrat, is The Decider. His decides whose job is “high” or “low value,” whether it is “high” or “low risk,” and, whether some families should see their breadwinner lose her job or whether a small business will be pushed closer to failure because he does not want them to reopen.
What if he’s wrong?
One thing we’ve noticed from watching the virtual meetings: nobody asks him any hard questions. No, “But doctor, what about….” or “What you told us last week seems to have changed. Did you miss something?”
Considering how important is his every word for the fate and fortunes of thousands of people, and the fact he is, after all, unelected, the public deserves at least a few hard questions. Because, you know, he could just be wrong.
So, since our “electeds” and our “appointeds” can’t seem to ask any substantive questions, we will.
TOURISTS ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL
“Dr. Locke, what about Kitsap County?”
“What do you mean, what about Kitsap County?”
“And Thurston and Chelan, doctor?“
Dr. Locke has repeatedly said we cannot risk attracting tourists out of fear they will bring contagion that Jefferson County has avoided. We’ve had only 30 COVID diagnoses and no deaths.
His “early open” list excludes all businesses he believes could attract tourists. That is a lot of businesses. It includes all retail that is not already somehow fitted into the arbitrary “essential” category. He also wants to prohibit many businesses from serving all but “locals.” A business that must stay closed may be selling the same kinds of things as an “essential,” but because Dr. Locke thinks the closed businesses, but not the open businesses, will draw tourists like fruit flies to overripe melon, they have to continue to slide towards going out of business permanently.
But Kitsap County. But Thurston, but Chelan.
These counties are right next door to King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties, which account for the majority of COVID diagnoses and deaths. Tens of thousands of people go back and forth between all these counties every day. Commuters cross on ferries or head to work on I-5. On weekends, Seattlites have been heading east into Chelan County since the beginning of the lock down.
These counties already experience far more interaction than Jefferson County would by fully reopening, especially with all our major tourist events cancelled for the rest of the year. The sheer numbers of daily county-border-crossers swamps the numbers of day tourists we could expect to wander Water Street or take in Fort Worden’s beach on a sunny day.
Neither Kitsap, Thurston nor Chelan county has seen any spike in COVID diagnoses or deaths.
Kitsap County has 270,000 people with a mere 159 cases, most of which were resolved without medical intervention, as is the case everywhere. That gives it an incidence of .06%, lower than Jefferson County’s infection rate of .09%. Only one COVID related death, that of a very elderly woman with debilitating health issues, occurred in Kitsap County. (The death of a police officer, charged by the media to the coronavirus, has not definitely been connected to COVID).
Thurston County, with 288,000 people has seen only 123 cases and 1 death, a man in his 80s, about whom we know nothing else. That gives Thurston County a COVID incidence of only .04%, again less than ours.
Chelan County, with a population of 78,000, has seen a higher incidence with its 176 cases, or .22%, but that is a very small rate. It may be due to the fact that Wenatchee serves as a regional medical center and cases and deaths from other counties have been credited to Chelan County when patients are brought there. Still, as a regional medical hub, Chelan County reports only 6 deaths.
The experience of these counties does not support Dr. Locke’s scary tourist scenario. Besides, tourists have been visiting us the whole time they were supposed to be locked inside their Seattle apartments. They have been on Water Street, at our parks, stopping off for food, gas and supplies on their way west.
“Doctor, if we truly want to insulate ourselves, shouldn’t we prohibit our own residents from going to Seattle? Why worry about tourists when we’ve got our own folks wandering off the rez?”
Ignored in all of Dr. Locke’s presentations to the Board of Health, is the fact that Jefferson County residents in significant numbers have been going back and forth from Snohomish, King and Pierce counties during the lock down. While waiting for the Bainbridge ferry, I struck up a conversation with the man in a pickup behind me. A Port Townsend resident, he has regularly been traveling to Seattle on business and meeting with clients there, and getting his meals and doing a little shopping in town when he could. In front of me two men driving a delivery truck for a Port Hadlock business were making another regular run to customers in Seattle. I overheard another person in line, also from Port Townsend, on her phone telling someone she’d missed the earlier ferry and would be there as soon as she could and where to meet her outside the airport terminal. I was heading into Seattle that day for medical care, as scores of other Jefferson County residents have done over the past two months.
And Jefferson County residents for the past two months by the hundreds, maybe thousands, have been travelling out of county to shop in Big Box stores.
The prophylaxis around Jefferson County has never been impermeable. And just like Kitsap, Chelan and Thurston counties we haven’t been walloped by the Wuhan virus.
A few more counties to mention.
Across the Columbia River from Portland and its populous suburbs lie Wakiakum and Skamania counties. They are fully in Phase 2 of the Governor’s reopen plan, with no restrictions on who may come to their county and enter their stores and businesses. Wakiakum has only 4 diagnoses, no deaths. Skamania has 3 cases, no deaths. Further east, it has been reported that on the first weekend after several rural counties there entered Phase 2 they were inundated with people from Spokane taking advantage of the good weather to enjoy parks, hiking trails, boating and fishing. Columbia County still has only 3 cases, no deaths. Garfield right next door and a stone’s throw from Spokane, has yet to report a single COVID diagnosis.
RECKLESSLY CONDEMNING “RECKLESS” REOPENINGS
Dr. Locke has criticized Georgia for opening so fully and so quickly. He called that governor’s actions “reckless.”
Yet, Georgia is seeing hospitalizations drop. Its per capita death rate is a fraction of New York’s. More than a month into its “reckless” early open Georgia continues to turn the corner for the better. And its economy is picking up steam, its people are returning to work, Atlanta’s airport is getting busy, its hospitals are making money again instead of bleeding red ink.
Dr. Locke did not throw Florida, tourist mecca supreme, into his “reckless” category. They also opened a month ago. The media has dropped their “human sacrifice” hair-on-fire reporting as Florida is doing just fine and its Governor now regularly blasts the unfounded, reckless precictions of doom fired at him when he announced reopening beaches and just about everything else.
And there is Colorado, led by a Democratic Governor, where cooped up Denver residents fled to the mountains as soon as their stay-at-home chains were broken. They’re doing just fine.
South Dakota never closed at all–“recklessly,” no doubt–and has never experienced any of the nightmarish predictions lobbed its way.
More states opened robustly and very early in comparison to Washington. On today’s CNN’s “State of the Union,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said there has not been a spike in cases in reopened states. Rather, the notable increases have occurred in states that remain locked down, though, thankfully, in “closed, very localized situations.”
QUESTION AUTHORITY–SOMEONE, ANYONE, PLEASE!
So, yeah, maybe Dr. Locke has some things very wrong. Maybe his fears are overblown and unfounded and Jefferson County’s economy is paying the price and we’d do better to just open everything up now and stop the destruction. There is certainly a lot to contradict his alarmism about tourists, in data from near and far.
