Here are my observations and opinions on the prospect of our economy reopening.

I’M TIRED, DAMN TIRED – Not physically.  Tired of watching our country go to hell.  Here’s what’s on my mind.

First, you need to know that by age I’m one of those vulnerable people, of which there’s so much concern.  And I have a pre-existing history of asthma and respiratory illness.  As recently as November, I was taking Zithromax (Z-pak) to prevent my bronchial problem from going into pneumonia.  And my wife has a cardiac condition that requires vigilance.

For weeks, we have been doing our best to follow the virus prevention guidelines. Washing our hands and washing them again.  No golf, and no playing bridge.  Shut-in except for a daily walk with our dog.

We watched fools hoard toilet paper.  Endless lines at Costco.  Getting word of an early morning “seniors only” shopping period at my local supermarket only to find empty shelves.

We’re told we don’t need to wear a mask, then we’re told we should, but you can’t purchase one in your neighborhood pharmacy.  The same is true for Clorox wipes and hand-sanitizer.

We’ve been ordering take-out occasionally at our neighborhood restaurant; not so much for our enjoyment, but to try to help it stay afloat.  Family visits are by telephone.

Admit it.  We have all been part of grand shelter-in-place or shutdown experiment.  We are listening to science and believing it.  Thank goodness we aren’t doing the same with climate change.

I have been using this blog to express my opinion that we need to get our economy open again.  I witnessed our robust economy dissolve in a matter of weeks. Thank God it was in great shape when the virus hit, or we would really be suffering now.

A letter to the editor of the Arizona Republic this morning provides insight into the misinformation and ignorance of the average public. “How good is an economic system that is brought to the brink of collapse when it is asked to slow itself down for a short period of time,” a man wrote.

For years, seasonal flu has killed 30 to 60,000 people annually.  Nobody talked about shutting down our economy and half the population doesn’t bother to get a flu shot.   Now, we’ve allowed our health and medical experts to scare the bejesus out of us as with concern for more than a million deaths as we note there have been some 47,000 U.S. deaths to date as we face the challenge of restoring our economy.

That number is highly questionable because doctors (at least some) are recording deaths due to Covid-19 when a patient’s pre-existing condition, including lung and heart disease, and even diabetes may have been the cause of death.

For six decades, my wife and I worked hard so that we could be in a position to live comfortably and enjoy ourselves at this time in our lives, but we are now at the mercy of “big brother,” not the virus.  And we refuse to give-in.  We know the risks, and will continue distancing and practicing proper hygiene, but we want our freedoms back.

I played golf yesterday for the first time in six weeks.  I felt liberated.  My wife will most likely have to wait until fellow bridge players are willing to sit across from each other at a card table again.

President Trump is correct. The cure has been worse than the disease.

With reluctance, I believe, President Trump has been listening to both medical and business experts. With his urging, they have provided him with proposed  guidelines for Opening Up America, Again, with an aspirational date of May 1, 2020 to phase in many businesses in a number of states.

THE CIVIL UNREST we’ve been seeing has extended to 25 states over the seemingly never-ending shutdown, and it is very encouraging to me.  I don’t appreciate Laurie Roberts, the bleeding-heart liberal columnist at the Arizona Republic, referring to them as idiots.

“So who are these people?” asked Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn rhetorically.  They have been patient citizens, who have come to believe the cure is, in fact, turning out to be worse than the disease.

While they have been listening to Doctors Andrew Fauci and Deborah Birx review the statistics gathered from across the nation for weeks now, they’re still not getting some of the most basic questions answered about the virus.  That’s because Fauci and Birx are still learning about the virus themselves.

People are confused about testing. Those without symptoms shouldn’t be tested, or maybe they should.  They hear about false negatives and false positives.

The people have learned that the number of projected deaths in the U.S. won’t be near the initial projections, and that there are no shortages of hospital beds and ventilators.  Those field hospitals that were constructed in record time, now won’t be needed.  Ventilators are being sent to other countries.  They say millions of masks are being produced, but I still cannot purchase one.

Like me, the protesters are also concerned about the expansion of government control and are troubled by the infringement on their civil liberties, and the implications of ignoring the First Amendment.  In a blatant overreach of her authority, the governor of Michigan disallowed people to travel to their second home, a cabin on a lake.

In a recent interview, Attorney General Bill Barr characterized some state “stay at home” restrictions amid the pandemic as “disturbingly close to house arrest,” and said the DOJ would consider legal action against governors who start to take restrictions on movement and civil liberties “too far.”

“These protesters aren’t rich or privileged,” commented Steven Moore, an economic advisor to the president. “Most are folks living paycheck or small-business owners seeing their livelihoods destroyed, and they are the ones who are bearing the crushing burden of the lockdown in their states.”

The leftist media and a few Democrat governors are accusing President Trump of fomenting violence by the protesters with his support of their First Amendment rights.  Someone saw a Confederate flag.  Oh my, God, what are we going to do? We don’t have any more statues to destroy.

I am concerned that the governors, who now have the responsibility to open their states for commerce, are wary of moving too rapidly and may be more concerned with their own political futures, should they make the wrong decision.  And let’s face it, Democrat mayors and governors, don’t want the economy improving for the president as election day nears.

They are the same weak-kneed individuals who keep referring to a “new normal” in this country.  I would hope that most Americans reject that thought.  We need to get back to the old “normal” as soon as possible.  A restaurant that has been operating with 60 tables isn’t going to make it with 30 tables. I am reminded of Barack Obama’s concession that manufacturing jobs won’t be coming back.

Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp gets it … we need to get back to work … and will let the shelter-in-place order expire at midnight on April 30, 2020 making it clear that the economic impact weighs heavily on him.  He will allow gyms, hair salons, and massage centers to reopen under strict guidelines, under what he refers to as a measured approach.

Appearing on The Story with Martha MacCallum Tuesday, he reminded her that Georgians don’t have to frequent those establishments if they are uncertain of their safety, but those business will be operating with guidelines provided to them.

“I don’t give a damn about politics right now,” Kemp said. “We’re talking about somebody that has put their whole life into building a business that has people that they love and work with every single day working in many of these places that are at home going broke, worried about whether they can feed their children.

“These are tough decisions, no doubt.  I’ve had to make many of them, and I can promise you I will have to make more of them.  We’ve also got to think about the effects on our economy and on these individuals from a mental health perspective, from a physical health perspective, and literally for people being about to put food on their tables.”

Publicly, the president expressed displeasure with Governor Kemp’s early move, but inside I have to believe he admires his backbone.

THERE’S MORE – I’m tired, too, of our lawmakers pouring trillions of dollars into businesses to keep them viable and to taxpayers (I hope) to help them put food on the table.

Under the unfortunate label of the Cares Act, they have now provided furloughed employees an incentive not to return to work.  That will remain in effect until the end of July, unless our magnanimous lawmakers extend the benefit.

President Trump created the opportunity for people to go back to work.  We saw the numbers of those in poverty go down, ditto for those on food stamps as we saw unemployment at its lowest ever.

Now those big spenders in Washington have raised the debt level to $24 trillion plus like money grows on trees.  And unemployment is up around 20 percent

Come this fall, Democrats and their media water carriers will be blaming Trump for this situation, and insist that they are better suited to manage the economy.

It’s time to shut off the welfare faucet and allow businesses to open.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.