Did the Right Thing

And thus too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. – Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death

As a lifelong restaurant operator, I made my opposition to Covid related shutdowns and dining restrictions very well known on social media sites. As a matter of principle, I never wavered, not even for even a day, from the position that lockdowns, masked mandates, and dining restrictions were never the position (both in the letter and spirit of the law) of governments to dictate. In my home state of Minnesota, I was not shy to label Gov. Walz and Mayors Frey and Carter as "restaurant slayers." And although such postings often receive positive responses from people in the restaurant world who were living a shared government imposed dystopian hell, there was always a few who posted virtue singling messages about Covid death counts and how they "did the right thing" by masking up, vaccinating, and sequestering for weeks on end within their homes. This article is in response to the "did the right thing" crowd.

For starters, I do not presume to have the definitive answer to how our nation, or the world for that matter, should have tackled the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic was extraordinary and required extraordinary action. But what baffles my mind, with governments all over the world, claiming to want "public-private" partnerships in all things business, that the Covid responses were entirely lopsided with all "public" and no "private" input. Anyone with even a cursory interest in economic principles should have predicted the malaise that unfolded within the hospitality industry and what these draconian lockdowns would eventually do to our economy.

The privileged "did the right thing" aristocracy, frolicking away their sequestered evenings in Prince Prospero's Abby, sanctimoniously lectured the hoi polloi to do the same were entirely oblivious to the reality that there are no lower beings that serves the serving class! If delivery drivers wanted fresh food at their houses, they were going to have to get it themselves. The irony was, that even with multiple mask wearing and pharmaceutical enriching jabs, the “red mask” of Covid was not halted at the palace gates.

For those “did the right thing” individuals who said, "yeah but the government handed out PPP to businesses affected by their edicts," I have one thing to say, “giving the government credit for issuing PPP to businesses affected by Covid lockdowns and restrictions is akin to crediting a domestic abuser for buying makeup to cover the black eye they inflicted!” Buying the way out of an atrocity is not honorable, it is a disgrace!

Twice in less then one year, my governor ordered our restaurants closed with 48-hour notice. Since I have yet to see a business analyst actually explain what truly happened when governments shut down the economy, here is what the corporate media could not be bothered to research and report. Ordering businesses to shut down only halted revenue. My governor did not halt payroll due, sales tax due, vendor payments due, rent and bank loans due or taxes due. Businesses measure cash flow for a reason! Business is fluid, we constantly generate revenue and remit expenses. Simply put, at the end of period, if revenues exceed expenses, we have a profit (positive cash flow.) If the opposite occurs, we have a loss. To put this concept in terms government representatives may understand, negative cash flow causes a deficit!

We are on the threshold of year three of our government’s Covid dictatorship and the privileged class of "did the right thingers" find themselves in a virtue singling pickle. The government impose privileges and services class mandates are coming to an end and they must either fight for governments to maintain their high-minded Covid protected status or come to realize, like their service class providers did two years ago, that suffering and death come to us all. They may don the mask and attempt to shield themselves from the outside world, but blessings are not, and have never been, bestowed by government edict. Blessings come from a much higher and noble Creator!

When it came to deciding how to respond to the pandemic, governments took an unknown (Covid deaths) and replaced it with a known (restaurant deaths.) And for that, they want a huge pat on the back for their bravery in epic times. I do not know about you, but valor usually is bestowed upon those who tackle the unknown and reemerge with the battle scars to prove it. Valor is not reserved for the kings and queens who ordered the quest from the safety of their lofty towers! The “did the right thing” crowd, if they were honest with themselves, would understand that their stance during Covid was one of upmost privilege. I am not sure what is worse for a country, a class of citizens oblivious to the people that provide their life sustaining needs or a class so privileged that they demand government to compel an under class to serve their righteousness. For the end, all that the Covid shutdowns proved was that the “Darkness and Decay…that held illimitable dominion over us all” did not refer to pandemic deaths but to the death of a once great Republic that cheerfully exchanged love of valor for obedient blind fear.