Please stop hassling summer people. They have every right to quarantine here (Opinion)

Like a lot of you, I have been reading a lot of complaints on social media and hearing a lot on the news about people who come to their Shore homes to quarantine.

And while it’s true that Gov. Phil Murphy asked summer people not to come to the Jersey Shore to quarantine, let’s face it: Murphy asks a lot of things.

People keep saying “all I see are New York plates all over the place!” (North Jersey) or “all I see are Pennsylvania plates all over the place” (South Jersey). But the fact is, a good percentage of these people came here way before the governor asked them not to. And even those who didn’t listen to the governor’s plea have every right to come here and quarantine wherever they want to — especially when their kids are out of school and there’s nothing for them to do all day.

I’m an all-year-round resident in a summer town, and I see how congested and crazy the streets get in the summertime. So believe me, I understand the frustration. But the fact of the matter is this: If you own a vacation home and you pay taxes on it and that’s where you choose to bring your family (as long as you are, in fact, remaining in self quarantine for 14 days) you have every right to do so! People will argue that our local hospitals don’t have the resources to deal with this large influx of people If many of them become ill, but everything is relative.

Their city hospitals can’t accommodate them either. In fact, every hospital is having a tough time now with its resources being stretched thin. When it comes down to a fight over respirators, believe me that’s going to happen whether those people are here or not. So I believe what it really boils down to is this: You care more about your family than you do about theirs. And that’s understandable. I don’t judge anybody for it. But stop pretending that this resentment is because “you care.”

And there’s a lot of jealousy out there too. Believe me, I would love to have a spacious and beautiful summer home to go to as a refuge from the tightly-packed city quarters during the quarantine. Anybody would. And I would bet that if you lived in New York or Philadelphia or in one of the North Jersey metropolises that people are escaping from and had a beautiful, airy and spacious shore home in Jersey, you’d be hunkering down there too.

Remember, Murphy’s admonition to not come to vacation homes is not a law but merely a suggestion. As long as those people are careful once they get here, why do we have to show them so much animosity? If people keep saying we’re all in this together, then let’s start acting that way.

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