I have been shaking my head quite a bit over the last couple of months with the response from the governor, our mayor and city council. They keep telling us that this is about ‘personal responsibility’ and ‘personal choice’. But that ‘choice’ was ripped from citizens today when the council voted 7-1 to lift restrictions on the hospitality industry and other similar businesses. Councilor Starr voted against the measure because they failed to pass an amendment that would sunset this on June 5th for review. That amendment was a tie vote with the Mayor voting to break the tie by voting NO.
Employees who get called back to work will have to give up their unemployment benefits. If they ‘choose’ to not return, those benefits will go away. So do they really have a ‘choice’? Nope. Because this state’s elected officials have set up a system of employment where the employer controls the employees lives and choices. Sure, you don’t have to return, but you now have no social net, so you only have one choice, the one your employer made for you. Go to work. Get sick. Hope you survive.
We have known for a long time that employees in this state have little rights. The only real right you have is that you can quit your job on a dime and their are NO repercussions from it, as well as no benefits.
I have been very fortunate that I have been able to go to work each day during this, and work from home. My choice. But I don’t work in hospitality. I also have an employer who has put a plan in place where we distance ourselves in the office, we also disinfect several times a day.
The difference from being in a secluded office setting and working in a restaurant is the points of contact. We have hand sanitizer everywhere in the office. We all have our personal stash on our desks, medical grade. And we don’t touch much except door handles. My experience as a server has thought me that you have thousands of points of contact within one shift. How can a server, a cook, a hostess or a bartender avoid that contact? It will be virtually impossible and people will get sick.
I could go on a rant about the stupidity of this, but I think that is obvious at this point. I have argued for a long time that these businesses are protected thru the Federal programs and their laid off employees are protected through unemployment benefits, now they want to f’ck that whole system up so people can go eat at Crapplebees. Completely insane. Your FREEDOM and LIBERTY ends when you endanger others knowingly. I think the Constitution is pretty clear.
ALL KINDS OF TESTING FOR PEOPLE WHO MAKE HOTDOGS
While I am all for Smithfield workers getting streamlined testing, what about the rest of us? If we can knock out 2,600 tests in a couple of days, why not continue the drive-thru testing for everyone? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that widespread testing is what will stop the spread. We have been told this every day for over 60 days!
This pandemic has drawn a clear line in the sand of who the ‘Haves’ are and who the ‘Have nots’ are. We are no longer the country our founding fathers concocted. If there has been anything through all this that has given me anxiety and distress is that the country I love is ran by a bunch of f’ing greedy morons! May they rot.
UPDATE: I also want to point out that while we are basically forcing hospitality workers back to work and off of unemployment benefits, many pencil pushers with the city will not have to be ‘phased’ back into work until May 18, as announced by the mayor today. My contention all along is if private industry has to go back to work, public employees must also. How can you say it is okay for us ‘worker bees’ to show up and shut up, but the people we pay thru our taxes can shelter in place? If you are concerned about their wellbeing (and you should be) what about the people who put food on their tables? I think a great amendment today would have been to direct ALL city employees to report to work on Monday in their offices. Oh, that’s right, it is unsafe.
This is a disaster-in-waiting. The majority of residents believe, from the polls I have seen, to favor a longer shelter in place and social distancing rule. Because of this no one is going to go out to eat. It won’t happen for a while. I know of very few people who want to go to a restaurant, and they definitely aren’t my friends with children. Restaurants are in a position to lose a lot of money, with wasted product and wasted labor costs over the next few months.
But I am sure it will get chalked up to being the employees fault somehow.
I doubt we will see the Smithfield test results. Get ready for this dangerous cover up here, too: https://northeast.newschannelnebraska.com/story/42102669/state-no-longer-allowed-to-track-processing-plant-data?fbclid=IwAR0-Sa91irAIPlXE4RtAzeZ-o330gHeyncCyKFdDjrgbQMJ5b8As2722UXw.
Always follow the money.
One more thing … a BIG thank you to Pat Starr for sticking to his guns and casting a “no” vote. I’m sure there was a lot of pressure to go with the flow and made it unanimous. Pat did the right thing, and cast the right vote. He’s a textbook servant leader.
I’ve got the popcorn ready to watch this blow up over the next three weeks. Meantime, I’ll stay home and enjoy my grill and a few cold beers. It’s cheaper, safer and smarter.
I am hoping this does not blow up. But I worked in hospitality part-time for over 20 years. It is impossible to stop the spread. IMPOSSIBLE! Unless Wilbur the Coyote is taking your order and delivering your food, the spread will happen. How can these supposed elected officials be so damn thick?
From day one, it was about preserving institutions and not saving people, but you watch, it’s going to be a hot mess with nothing being saved.
May 6th had the highest number of national COVID cases since January 1. Why are we reopening? Positive cases in South Dakota are not only rising, but accelerating.
#Starr4Mayor
Correction: “4th highest number”
I was surprised no one on the Council asked the Sanford and Avera docs about the number of covid patients from Sioux City that are being sent to their hospitals here in SF.
The first patients were moved from Sioux City to Sioux Falls hospitals beginning Monday, May 4th.
As the surge begins here, how much is this decision going to limit the number of ICU facilities available to South Dakota residents?
As I said before the mayor is a great actor hopefully people see through his arrograncwewhen it comes to vote next time.
South Dakota – We are Open for Business Baby! And We Are Putting the Hospital back in Hospitality!
I guess my question is, how long do we want this to go on?
-We can’t pay people forever to sit at home on unemployement
-The virus is not going away anytime soon
-Vaccine is probably a year away
I think the best time to reopen is when its getting warm since the Virus apparently does not thrive in warm weather. The one thing this virus has taught us or at least reminded us is to help combat sickness and stay health
-wash your hands
-cover your mouth
-disinfect/clean more
-eat health
– exercise more.
All these precautions help. One bit of good news I think is that several tests conducted in California had shown a much larger percentage of the population already had antibodies which would mean alot more people had this and were fine than we originally thought.
No matter how you slice and dice this, we have hard choices to make and nothing is going to be perfect. If this comes back in the fall/winter we will be back in the same boat and I think its better to ease into it, get some herd immunity going, and be as prepared as we can until a vaccine is ready. I just dont think we can keep this up and people all over the country, outside of political leaders, are pushing back and want to go back to work. This really is a no win situation and I think its best for people to make their own decisions but, we really can’t pay everyone to sit at home much longer
Because of separation, restaurants will have half their business back. Only about half of employees will go back to work. This is not a profitable business plan that will lead into closure. There’s a lot of false hope. The half that don’t go back to work will go on welfare without unemployment. It’s been hard but it’ll get harder for the working class.
I think June 1st would have been better. You certainly don’t open in the middle of a peak, but that is what we are doing.
Yeah, lead by setting an example Kristi and Paul. Bring those fams out of the mcmansions and show us how to dine out in Sioux Falls. We’ll have kelo there for you to keep control of the contrast. Make it a demonstation on safety just like Daugaard did by shopping downtown after the copper lounge collapsed. DO it.
Just because businesses re-open doesn’t mean they will have enough customers to survive. Re-opening, from an economic sense, doesn’t mean problem solved.
We can actually borrow ourselves out of this from a federal level, interest rates are minuscule, and we will owe it to ourselves. Plus, we will also save Grandma and a lot of businesses that would fail during a “re-opening” would be given a real chance with bailout money and a world with a vaccine.
“At this very moment, Bill O’Reilly is probably working on his newest book: ‘Killing Grandma'”
Yes! We have finally and handily beat Oregon! Next Arkansas! Let’s send the Razorbacks directly to Smithfield! #SouthDakotaProud #GreatMasksGreatHotspots