You’d have to be living in an alternate reality — one, perhaps, in which lizard people dressed in bell bottoms and saddle shoes break into homes at night and inject into sleeping bodies mind-controlling nanobots that act as thought trackers — to deny most people are in one way or another hurting because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whether on a personal level by forcing us to limit in-person interactions with family and friends we took for granted pre-2020, or on the financial front because hours have been cut, jobs have been lost or businesses shut down as revenue streams dry up because consumers are told to stay home to avoid spreading the virus.
As Michael Stipe crooned, everybody hurts.
We have been asked to make sacrifices for the greater good, for the health, safety and well-being of our friends, family and neighbors.
But what is to be done, what can be done, when those in our community flout the rules during this long period of uncertainty?
Even before the pandemic there have been rules and consequences intended to reinforce order. Drive drunk? Look forward to a suspended license, fines and jail time. Operate an illegal cannabis dispensary? Watch your pot shop get shut down — eventually — and be fined up the pipe fitter.
During the pandemic, restaurants and non-essential businesses have been asked to curtail their operations or cease altogether. Most have complied, either initially or after receiving a cease and desist order from the authorities.
But there are some who disregard the notices, shrug at the threat of $1,000 fines, and scoff at the notion of being shut down. Their livelihoods, and those of their employees they add, are worth the risk. Not to mention the blows they are striking against tyranny. What to do with them?
One possible solution may be to disqualify them from future government aid. Or at least place them lower on a priority list. For those who would not rely on public funding there might be the threat of not having their licenses or permits renewed.
Business owners who operate responsibly and within current guidelines should not look at their scofflaw colleagues and be tempted to join them, figuring they have nothing to lose. It’s not healthy for business or the community-at-large.
