Just open us up already! (Opinion)
Once again another Monday has come and gone with a major announcement from Governor Murphy about reopening New Jersey and once again it wasn't much to write home about, especially if your home is here. If this were a football game, today's announcement would be a handoff into the line for a minimal gain.
What we need is a "Hail Mary" to put this shutdown into the"end" zone. In other words, as the late Oakland Raiders owner, Al Davis would say, "just open us up already." Actually, Davis said "Just win baby," but you get the idea.
If Frank Sinatra were alive today, he'd have a new version of his classic "All The Way." It would go something like this;
"If you’re gonna open
It’s no good unless you open
All the way
Stop with all this fiction and
Just loosen the restrictions
By the end of May
Who knows why we live in Jersey
Only a fool would stay
But if you’re going to open
It’s no good unless you open
All the way all the way
All the way."
According to the New York Post, and WalletHub, the lockdown killed off many jobs but might not've saved any lives. The Post article references a WalletHub ranking of the states with the most strict lockdowns from the pandemic. They had New Jersey as the strictest lockdown in America when the pandemic started, with New York right behind us. Flip it around, the state that was most open by their ranking was South Dakota, which had almost no restrictions in place, and Utah coming in second. The article found, "Where lockdowns were lifted, unemployment fell, but the restrictions didn’t seem to nudge death rates."
The article says, "By March 8, 2021, for example, New Jersey had recorded 2,656 deaths per 1 million residents, while New York had 2,500 per 1 million residents, according to the Covid Tracking Project. South Dakota had 2,149 deaths per 1 million residents, but loose-rules Utah had just 617."
Also according to the article, "New Jersey was fourth on the list of still-strict prevention measures, and had the eighth-highest unemployment."
I'm not sure what happened in the past week to make the governor comfortable with loosening them more this week. By Governor Murphy's own metrics, we should be open, so what is he waiting for? Just open us up already!
The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise. Any opinions expressed are Steve's own. Steve Trevelise is on New Jersey 101.5 Monday-Thursday from 7pm-11pm. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.