So from right here at home, Penn Live, the online version of the Harrisburg Patriot-News, the state capital newspaper, is this headline:
‘An act of survival’? Calls to ‘reopen Pennsylvania’ from coronavirus lockdown are steadily getting louder
The story by reporter Matt Miller says, in part, this:
“How frayed has the patience of Pennsylvanians become after weeks under a government ordered lockdown due to the coronavirus?
We might find out on Monday.
At noon on that day, an array of groups who are bashing Gov. Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 quarantine and business closure orders as overreaching, unnecessarily broad and harmful to a tottering economy are vowing to rally outside the now-empty Capitol complex.
They say they will be driving around, honking their horns to show their displeasure.
…One of the organizers of Pennsylvania’s planned rally, Matt Bellis, founder of ReOpen PA, had this to say when he appeared on the Wendy Bell talk radio show on KDKA earlier this week.
“We can no longer live under a lockdown,” Bellis said. “We need to do everything we can to reasonably and responsibly reopen the state…We can’t hamper the economy anymore.”
As of Friday, Bellis’ group listed more than 26,000 members on Facebook. Thousands of others have signed on with the other sponsors of Monday’s planned rally, including End the Lockdown PA and Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine.”
In other words? As in Michigan, the pressure is on the Democrat governor – Tom Wolf here in Pennsylvania – to act.
Whatever else Pennsylvanians may think of the state’s notoriously liberal governor, being quick to respond to criticism is not one of his problems. The Miller story was first posted at 11:01 on Friday morning. By 2:19 pm, the story had been slotted down a notch to make way for this front-page headline:
Gov. Tom Wolf unveils 6-point plan for reopening Pa.; here’s his list
This story by reporter Greg Pickel began this way:
“Gov. Tom Wolf unveiled the key criteria of his plan for reopening Pennsylvania amid the coronavirus pandemic on Friday.
A six-point plan was outlined during a televised address, but Wolf provided no timetable for when they could start taking place. He added that more specifics will be forthcoming next week.”
What are the “six points”? In brief they these:
1. A “data-driven approach”
2. “Guidance and recommendations for employers, individuals, and healthcare facilities” as reopening proceeds.
3. A requirement to make sure “adequate personal protective equipment and testing are available.”
4. A “monitoring and surveillance program that allows the Commonwealth to deploy swift actions for containment or mitigation if it’s necessary.”
5. “Limitations on visitors to congregate at care facilities and prisons.”
6. “Limitations when large gatherings unrelated to occupations should remain in place for the duration of the reopening process.”
What does the Wolf plan really mean? It really means that the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – like their counterparts in Michigan – are not simply getting restless, they are getting increasingly infuriated at the governor’s lockdown of the state.
The day before all of this spilled out into the open, President Trump was out with his own re-opening guidelines that specifically said the individual 50 state governors could re-open their states when they feel the time is right.
Now the pressure is on Governor Wolf – from his own citizens – to get on the ball.
So come Monday we will see what happens in the middle of Harrisburg where a now empty State Capitol building sits.
Stay tuned.
