Dear Editor,

I just heard something on a local TV news broadcast that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

“I’m just glad they’re letting me stay in business.” That is exactly what a local small-business owner said about the most recent pandemic-related mandate from Pennsylvania’s governor. “I’M JUST GLAD THEY’RE LETTING ME STAY IN BUSINESS.”

For the love of God, this is America! When did we get to the point that our bedrock community business owners express gratitude to “THEY” for being allowed to stay open and conduct business? That terrifying comment came from a 21st century local business owner and is something I haven’t heard in my entire adult life. But it was a statement and a sentiment often expressed during the darkest days of 1930s and 1940s Europe. Can this really be happening here, in the United States, in 2020? Is history repeating itself?

This state’s governor is purposely and single-handedly ruining Pennsylvania’s economy. He knows, unquestionably, that he is destroying thousands of small-business operations and putting tens of thousands out of work. He is doing this deliberately and for an irrational, ludicrous reason. And the damage he’s done so far may never be undone.

Why unilaterally close down this state’s businesses by the thousands? Why take this outrageous, draconian action? What is so vital that the wholesale devastation of so many lives is justified? Here’s his reason: Because we, the governed, MIGHT overwhelm our hospitals and the statewide health care systems during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s it in a nutshell.

Given his fear that a statewide health crisis MIGHT overwhelm our hospitals and health care systems, not that it has or even will, a rational and reasoned approach to the perceived problem would be to build more hospitals and hire more nurses. You needn’t shut down commerce. You needn’t ruin the lives and livelihood of countless thousands of working citizens. And, you needn’t build brand-new brick-and-mortar hospitals.

Start erecting tent hospitals and make the recruitment of qualified medical personnel a state priority.

L. Ernie Foucault

Kresgeville