“I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – and I will be heard!”
Thus, famously in the day, spoke one of America’s leading abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison. I recalled this quote as I stood in the middle of a sea of thousands of Pennsylvanians who had gathered to protest Governor Tom Wolf’s lockdown of the state. It was Wednesday, April 20.
Wow. Were these people fired up. They were – to borrow from Garrison – in earnest. They were not about to equivocate or excuse, they were not about to retreat a single inch. And they were damn well going to be heard.
There was no violence. Not even close. These were patriots. And they were there to stand up for freedom, to stand up – peacefully – for their right to work. Their right to make a living. Their right to run their business as they – not the Governor – saw fit. In short, as their T-shirts proclaimed, they want to Re-Open Pennsylvania.
This rally was, in fact, a snapshot of a growing movement that is gathering steam around the country.
Several state legislators addressed the crowd. Penn Live, the online version of the capital area newspaper, The Harrisburg Patriot-News, reported these comments from Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who asked ‘do you feel your rights are being trampled on?’ The crowd shouted ‘yes!’ It’s time to rise up, he said.”
Penn Live also reported that “Lawyer and radio host Marc Scaringi said that ‘this governor misused the law made to address hurricanes… by closing disaster areas’ adding ‘our businesses are not a disaster.’ The results have been catastrophic to millions of Americans.”
Indeed.
This rally was, in fact, a snapshot of a growing movement that is gathering steam around the country – with millions of Americans reaching the limit of commands to stay home and keep their businesses shuttered (as reported here by Fox News). Monday night Louisiana Senator John Kennedy appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox show and said this to Tucker:
“Here’s the way I say it. The American people are not morons. They understand what I’m about to say, and at some point we’re going to have to trust them.
Number one, very soon the can is going to run out of road. We’ve got to open this economy. If we don’t, it’s going to collapse. And if the U.S. economy collapses, the world economy collapses.
Trying to burn down the village to save it is foolish. That’s a cold, hard truth.
We’ve got to be smart about how we do it. Don’t open up in the middle of a hotspot. Encourage your elderly and those with pre-existing conditions to stay quarantined and provide them financial support.
This is like choosing between cancer and a heart attack. It’s a miserable choice.”
Exactly.
I had a chance at the event to speak with rally goer Melanie Stringhill Patterson. Melanie is from the Mon Valley in Southwestern Pennsylvania. She spoke passionately about the struggles of “Mom and Pop” shops and small business, ticking off a list of restaurants, the hospitality business and others whose business has dropped some 70%. Single Moms who work are making nothing, and have to feed their kids. Caterers, realtors, car dealers, boutiques, auctioneers, dentists have gone dark. There is, she says, in what was a common view, “no common sense” being used by Governor Wolf. “Liberty started here, Melanie said firmly, and she and the rest of the rally-goers are determined to see that it is re-started here.
No one is suggesting reckless policy. But as Senator Kennedy pointed out, the American people aren’t morons either. If the grocery store or various box stores can be open, with customers required to wear masks, rally goers were asking why can’t the same rules apply to the “Mom and Pop” shops of America? Good question.
Here’s the bottom line of this rally in Pennsylvania – and the rest of these rallies popping up around the country.
Americans know how to adapt. They have done it before. They stood up and got the job done after Pearl Harbor. They rallied and pulled together to help New York after 9/11. They are no strangers to pulling together in a crisis.
The harsh reality here is that if you scratch a liberal you will find, a totalitarian screaming to get out.
Pennsylvania is the place where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were written. It is the home of Valley Forge and Gettysburg, where Pennsylvanians suffered and died in the winter of the American Revolution and the weltering summer battle at the height of the Civil War.
This is to say the rights these protestors on the steps of the State Capitol building were demanding to be restored to them were fundamental to the creation of this country. Pennsylvanians have fought and died for these rights.
And as the Pennsylvanians who rallied Monday made clear, they are not going to stand by and watch those rights – along with their jobs and very lives – be snuffed out by overreaching politicians with a taste for arbitrary power.
