It’s time to return to normal

To the editor:

After reading the letters to the editor in your May 22 edition of the Shawano paper I feel I should respectfully reply to the complaints regarding the wearing of masks by employees in a certain store to reopening businesses.

I have a simple solution to those with these concerns: stay home. There are few things in life that cannot be delivered to your home; simply because the regulations are loosening does not mean you are forced to leave your home.

Those of us who will take the chance to witness momentous events, college graduations, new grandchildren, etc. should not be compared to people who feel leaving their home for necessary reasons only does not include Wal-Mart or Qualheim’s.

As far as having “confidence in our economy,” having been a small business owner myself, I monitor the number of businesses that are having to permanently close through no fault of their own because they cannot afford to pay rent, payroll, utilities, etc.

As far as not worrying about the economy until we have confidence in our health first, that’s ridiculous. This is not the first medical emergency America has ever suffered. What if we had shut down the whole country when tuberculosis was still prevalent or even when AIDS was still an unknown “virus?”

Americans are stronger than you think. Do you remember how people built bomb shelters in the 1970s? Let’s use some common sense, folks. All the millions spent on the “Russian probe” by the Democrats found nothing. Let’s not forget the impact this will have on all these people losing their jobs.

Anxiety and depression are sure to follow, and although they count the COVID-19 deaths closely and daily now, I highly doubt the emotional toll this will take on Americans mental health when they can get back to work, if they have a job to get back to. After 9/11, Americans showed their strength by getting back to normal. Two months is enough, time to return to normal.

Kristina A. Nikolai, Gresham