State Representative Blaine Wilhour isn’t happy with the Governor once again closing inside seating for restaurants and bars. He questions both the value and the legality.
“You still can’t have a restaurant and bar or any other establishment shut down without a court order. We do have a rule of law here and that still is important. I have just been frustrated by a lot of this stuff and have a lot of questions for Dr. Ezike and the Governor and they haven’t been as forthright with some of these answers as I’d like.”
At the top of the list is the actual value of the shutdowns.
“A lot of them are probably answering that they’ve been to a restaurant over the past few weeks but they’ve also probably been saying they’ve been at Wal-Mart, grocery store, church and everywhere else. Are we going to shut all those places downs too? There is just very little evidence that these harsh mitigation efforts work for anything than to destroy small businesses.”
Wilhour says small businesses should make a decision on what works best for them. He notes the country has a long history of peaceful civil disobedience and when you feel your constitutional rights are being infringed on that is appropriate. He feels the businesses would have a good case.
Wilhour says when a government takes draconian action that literally destroys people’s lives we are owed over the top transparency which is not happening for citizens or state legislators. Wilhour contends a database cited by Dr. Ezike doesn’t really exist.
Wilhour continues to advocate for a targeted approach and says we’ve lost focus on protecting those who are vulnerable with all attention focused on the positivity rate which is a terrible metric. He adds 75-percent of the deaths in Southern Illinois have been in long term care facilities.
