No Shirt, No Shoes... No Service

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My Two Cents

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For decades, some variation of signs bearing that message hung in the windows of businesses all across our nation. Largely a public health measure, I don’t remember ever hearing of employees being criticized, much less attacked, by customers for enforcing the restrictions. I also don’t think I ever read a story about government officials refusing to support the business owners who hung those signs. 

It was a simple rule that people followed. Six little words that made sense and that we followed without creating too big a fuss.

Fast forward to 2020, when we find ourselves facing a pandemic that has killed nearly 120,000 of our fellow Americans. Now in addition to shoes and shirts, we’re being asked by many businesses to add a facemask to the list. 

Seems reasonable. Medical professionals say that the face coverings can help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Since they’re the ones with the training in this sort of thing, many of us have chosen to follow that advice when we’re around larger crowds, and through an inadvertent cough or sneeze could spread the virus to someone else.

However, the suggestion that a business would dare tell a customer they had to wear something to come inside is suddenly no longer about the rights of a business owner. Or what’s best for public health. What should be a simple, common sense act has become a complicated issue of individual rights versus overreach. Politicians are twisting themselves in knots trying to do the right thing and tell citizens to wear facemasks in public, while at the same time applauding citizens and businesses that refuse to follow the guidance they themselves offered. 

Along the way, they continue to absolve themselves of any responsibility for surging COVID-19 case counts and rising hospitalizations.

I’ll continue to listen to the medical professionals and wear a facemask when I visit crowded places and I’ll continue to ignore those of you who enjoy mocking me for it.

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It’s budget season around Scurry County and you’ll soon be seeing stories about how our local government entities plan to run their operations in the coming year. 

There’s been an online push for the public to get involved in the process, in part by increasing the number of Ask Us questions the newspaper submits to local officials. We’re happy to continue tracking down answers to your legitimate questions, but there’s a better way for the public to send a message — regardless of where they stand on the developing budgets — to our elected officials.

Show up.

Every year around this time I write the same thing, and every year when the public largely sits on the sidelines it is a humble reminder that most of you don’t pay a whole lot of attention to my ramblings.

That’s fine, but if you want to help shape the conversations about how tax dollars are spent, social media posts and anonymous questions aren’t the best way. Signing your name on a letter to the editor where you express an opinion backed up by facts can be incredibly impactful. So is showing up at a meeting and expressing your opinion concisely and politely. It’s OK to disagree, just don’t express your opinions in a way that’s disagreeable.

Hopefully our government entities will take into account how many of our households and businesses are still struggling to recover financially and get back to where we were in February before our world changed. Hopefully they’ll get creative in their own operations — like the rest of us have been forced to do — and find ways to do more with less and give taxpayers a break in the process.

If you can’t attend, we’ll be there reporting on the budgets and you’ll be able to read about them in The Snyder News. 

 

Bill Crist is the publisher of The Snyder News. Comments may be emailed to publisher@thesnydernews.com.