For two months running, job creation – or recreation – has outpaced expectations. The hope of a so-called V shaped recovery have been growing. But has media across the left-right media divide have reported, the numbers of newly reported daily cases of COVID19 has surged past 55,000, according to the left-of-center NPR.
How does that impact businesses, jobs and professions like yours?
“I’m very nervous,” said Danielle Judge. “I’ve put my life’s work into this business, and it’s really hanging on a thread.”
Judge thought the worst was over after she had managed to reopen in May and her loan from the government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was successfully processed. But now, the new wave of COVID19 related impacts were hitting their business again.
“I didn’t fathom that a whole country could stay shut down and affect people’s businesses and people’s livelihoods for the duration of time that it has,” Judge said in an report from right-of-center Fox Business. Her business – Rowdy’s Pet Resort in Apollo Beach by Gibsonton, Florida is like thousands of others in various parts of the U.S. While it is outside of manufactured housing, there are obvious indirect impacts on our profession and all others. Business owners, their workers and customers are your customers too.
It isn’t just in states like FL, TX or Arizona where rising cases of the Wuhan, China originated coronavirus are climbing. In New York City, for instance, Mayor Bill De Blasio has ordered new restrictions on businesses like restaurants. Those restrictions are not based on rising cases there, but rather, in other parts of the U.S.
“About a month after Mayor Bill de Blasio personally led a police raid on a Hasidic rabbi’s funeral in Brooklyn, which he portrayed as an intolerable threat in the era of COVID-19, New York’s mayor visited the same borough to address a tightly packed crowd of protesters who had gathered in response to George Floyd’s death. Far from ordering them to disperse in the name of public health, the unmasked mayor enthusiastically EXPRESSED solidarity with the demonstrators.” So said Jacob Sullum, in an article with the headline “Bill de Blasio’s blatant anti-religious discrimination” published on July 2, 2020 on the right-of-center New York Post.
Sullum noted business but focused on religious liberty restrictions. “The contrast between de Blasio’s anger at Jewish mourners and his solicitude toward political protesters figures prominently in last Friday’s decision by a federal judge who deemed New York’s pandemic-inspired restrictions on religious gatherings unconstitutional. The ruling, which said COVID-19 control measures violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom when they draw arbitrary distinctions between religious and secular conduct, is a warning to politicians across the country as they loosen the sweeping restrictions they imposed in the name of flattening the curve.”
But just weeks before, the international Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, which states it has some 1300 attorneys, said this.
“In a decision released on April 13, 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court addressed a broadside challenge to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s business-closure order, which ordered all non-life-sustaining businesses in the Commonwealth to cease their physical operations until further notice. In a 4-3 decision, the Court upheld the order, ruling (among other things) that the COVID-19 pandemic is a “natural disaster” because of its serious threat to human life; that because the closure order is temporary in nature and a necessary exercise of the Commonwealth’s police power, it is not a regulatory taking requiring payment of just compensation under state or federal law; and that the business-closure order and its associated process for seeking a waiver do not violate the due process protections of the Pennsylvania or federal constitutions.”
The issue isn’t as cut and dried across the country as some might desire, because state constitutions vary. The National Law Journal said on June 24 that “In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local governments imposed lockdown orders that placed temporary but substantial burdens on rights and liberties. While it is unsurprising that governments have constraining powers during times of peril, it is surprising that the constitutional limits on those restrictions are not well-understood. In April, Attorney General William Barr issued a memorandum directing U.S. attorneys to “be on the lookout for state and local directives that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.”
Against this backdrop, we ask, how does the Constitution limit the government’s response to a public health emergency? While this critical question has wide ranging implications—from the nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd to the protests over lockdown orders to the power of government to bring about business closures—this article focuses on the constitutional limits on infringements on religious gatherings.”
Framing the question in religious liberty terms makes sense, because the First Amendment gives specific rights to certain things, including freedom of religion.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” So reads the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as reported on the Constitution Project website.
Among the millions of businesses that have been challenged are gun stores. Some where ordered to close or have other restrictions, which was also challenged under the Second Amendment, which reads “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” While anti-gun rights advocates often argue that the mention of the militia limits the Second Amendment rights of the people, that’s a misguided reading. The militia and the “necessary to the security of a free State,” explains why “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Viral images of the gun totting couple brandishing firearms to protect their property against possible harm by a perceived threat from a mob outside their door while law enforcement was otherwise engaged are among the reasons that the Second Amendment exists.
The 9th amendment, says the Federal Government Archives, “states that listing specific rights in the Constitution does not mean that people do not have other rights that have not been spelled out.”
While each amendment has specific meaning and value, noted what that same Archives.gov source says about the 10th. “The Tenth Amendment says that the Federal Government only has those powers delegated in the Constitution. If it isn’t listed, it belongs to the states or to the people.”
Perhaps as important is this insight for those who for whatever reason haven’t dived deeply into the federal constitution that flowed from the events that the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 launched. In America, it is government that is limited. Unlike nations ruled by kings or queens, here in the United States, “We the People” are “sovereign.”
Here is how Heritage framed that: “The United States is a sovereign nation. Sovereignty is a simple idea: the United States is an independent nation, governed by the American people, that controls its own affairs.” Not that the American people are supposed to control our “own affairs.” By the Bill or Rights and other clauses in the Constitution limiting the power of federal and/or state governments, that is supposed to protect us from the abuses that caused American colonists to break from England and its royal family in the first place.
So, our rights in America don’t flow from government. That is the method of communist and other forms of totalitarian nation states. Our rights come from God not government. As Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers expressed it in the Declaration of Independence. “…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
That is part of the heritage that is celebrated on July 4. But that celebration should not be limited to a single day. Indeed, the fact that there is so much overreach by various political authorities is evidence enough that there is too much complacency on the part of too many Americans.
The solution to that complacency isn’t in the destruction of other people’s private property. It isn’t in taking the lives or harming those who have not harmed us. Peaceful protests, yes. Litigation, sure. Elections, absolutely. All of those are important. So too is turning to the same Creator that the founders did in stating what they felt was “self-evident.”
Ultimately, there is a need for clarity of information, which informs thought, and then hopefully behavior. It is not without reason that the Bill of Rights protects freedom of the press and religion alike. The free press, as it has been observed, is the one form of private business or profession that is directly mentioned in the Bill of Rights.
Without sound information and informed morals, like it or not, chaos can ensue. It is better to light one candle that to curse the darkness, as the Christophers’ motto reminds us.
Day by day, on MHProNews we strive to inform readers on issues that matter. Nor are we alone. There are others in our profession who supply insights and support the work being done here; we thank them and you. We look to God, history, the law and a range of sources to present reports based upon evidence and reason. In the week that was, the most recent reports are found below.
Don’t miss the wrap up following our linked reports.
With no further adieu, here are the reports from 6.28 to 7.5.2020.
What is new from Washington, D.C. from MHARR
What is new on MHLivingNews
The latest from the Masthead
What is new on the Daily Business News on MHProNews
Saturday 7.4.2020
Friday 7.3.2020
Thursday 7.2.2020
Wednesday 7.1.2020
Tuesday 6.30.2020
Monday 6.29.2020
Warren Buffett Declared “Class Warfare,” Buffett Says Fellow Billionaires – “We’re Winning”
Sunday 6.28.2020
Programming note. MHProNews has finished the process of revamping our industry-leading x2 weekly emailed headline news updates. There was one glitch, sorry about that, but overall it went off fine. You can sign up free in seconds at this link here or above.
Your ability to practice your business and profession depend in good measure on safety and security. Peace and protected rights, therefor, are vital. Law and order are essential.
As troubling as much that has occurred in 2020 is, and it is arguably the most tumultuous year in America since 1968-1969, it potentially has some ‘dark graces’ – silver linings to the dark clouds. We are learning directly and indirectly why:
- Limited government is important.
- Why knowing and exercising our rights matters.
- Why sound information and education are vital, because incorrect information and unchecked impulses can lead to chaos.
- Why thwarting people’s rights often results in violence; that’s not a justification, it is an observation with past and present examples.
- But that chaos didn’t just spring up. It has root causes. It is not the superficial that should attract us. It is what is underlying that is of keen interest.
When you pull a weed from the root — it doesn’t return. But if you only tear a weed off at the surface, it will regrow in short order. Someone near and dear – but beyond these 4 walls and a roof – said not too long ago to MHProNews that we should ‘stop tilting against windmills.’ While that person is respected, it was a historically mistaken point. The founders of our nation were tilting at windmills when they revolted against England and their crown monopolies. The abolitionists in America where tilting at windmills when they pushed for decades what was finally realized – at great cost in blood, limbs, lives and treasure – in the Civil War that freed slaves in America. It was years of struggle that resulted in the successes of the Civil Rights movement in America.
History is filled with evidence in our nation and around the world that it is always those who are willing to engage in a protracted struggle with facts in the face of fear and frustration that can prevail.
Faith. Family. Freedom. Flag. These are worthy of attention and effort. America isn’t perfect, but it is better than most if not all of the other options around the planet. People are trying to get into America, few try leaving for good.
That famous Christophers motto, it is better to light one candle that to curse the darkness, is an insightful and inspiring summation of what has always led to positive changes in our nation and others around the world. Ora et labora. Prayer and work. Pray like it all depends on God, work like it all depends on you.
Don’t forget that it is always about getting to the root cause of problems. It is all too easy to chase the latest bright and shiny ball. Each issue – properly understood – has a root cause that must be addressed.
There is always more to come, so stay tuned with the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.
