I am urging area residents to contact Gov. Tim Walz to ask him to open safe Minnesota businesses immediately.
I have been in contact with Sen. Scott Newman and state representatives Dean Urdahl and Glenn Gruenhagen about this shutdown situation. Our legislators are working as forcefully as possible in this regard, but Walz has not been heeding their advice or suggestions. The Minnesota GOP needs your help. It needs for residents of Minnesota to put pressure on Walz to open safe Minnesota businesses. Your voice will strengthen their hand.
There are relatively few people known to be infected in rural areas. The vast majority are located in the metro area according to the Minnesota Department of Health. State Sen. Jim Abeler, a chiropractor, was quoted in a recent U.S. News and World Report article, “There are literally thousands of small and even larger businesses which would choose to conduct their business in a manner that would respect their neighbors. It is time to trust Minnesotans to do right. There is no benefit to anybody to pointlessly cause them financial ruin.”
I urge you to listen to Gruenhagen’s COVID-19 YouTube update interview with a microbiologist who has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 35 years. He says we can conduct a targeted approach protecting the vulnerable and various population hotspots. Gruenhagen says we should use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations that stress behaviors that are “safe” versus “unsafe,” rather than the more subjective measure, “essential.”
Gruenhagen states in the update, “Changing this approach would allow all small businesses to be essential and at least operate at a minimum level, and allow them a better opportunity to survive.”
I am concerned that Walz will continue to extend the date of ending the stay-at-home order. Our economy cannot wait any longer. Our business owners can mitigate the risks to their customers. We as customers can continue to wash our hands, wear masks and practice social distancing. We can do both; open Minnesota businesses and still maintain a relatively safe environment.
We cannot lose our small businesses, they are the backbone of our U.S. economy.
You can leave Walz a phone message by calling 651-201-3400, submit a message online at mn.gov/governor/contact, or mail letters to 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Room 130, St. Paul, MN 55155.
I ask that you share this letter with other state residents, your family, friends and neighbors. We need to inundate the governor with requests to open all safe businesses immediately. Mark Levin said it so well, “Governors have their foot on the throat of the economy.”
I will not be allowed to submit a letter to the editor for another month. I ask that you consider expressing your thoughts with your own letter and/or on your favorite social media platforms.
I encourage you to educate yourself by reading alternative news sources other than mainstream media.
This shutdown concern is not about dollars, it is about the personal lives of millions of Americans who are now unemployed. Michael Burry, a doctor now investor who is featured in the book and movie “The Big Short,” wrote in an email to Bloomberg News, “Universal stay-at-home is the most devastating economic force in modern history. And it is man-made. It very suddenly reverses the gains of underprivileged groups, kills and creates drug addicts, beats and terrorizes women and children in violent, now-jobless households, and more. It bleeds anguish and suicide.”
