The
Random Sampler
Recently, The Star-Ledger’s Steve Politi, offered up “Gym Owner a Hero? Now that’s Quite
a Stretch.” I was beginning to think
that in these days of lawns signs, public announcements lauding
so many heroes, and rightfully so; they deserve it: the healthcare
workers, teachers, firemen, police and the others who were at the
forefront of the Covid-19 pandemic. Apparently,
there is no room for hard working ,
take- the- initiative American types. Don’t be surprised when this pandemic is
behind us that this latter group will be so lauded.
Up until now it was hard for the commoner to become a hero, unless of course, you belonged to the elites: political, media and
cult-of-personality celebs. Nice to see the accolades spread around a bit and
not monopolized by the liars, provocateurs and those practiced in sleight of hand.
The gym owners in question in Bellmawr, N.J., are in
defiance of Gov. Murphy’s edict No. 73. Which states, and I’m paraphrasing, You must relinquish and
lose all control in the entity in which you have devoted and invested your
whole life. The two co-owners of the gym,
Ian Smith and Frank Trumbetti , re-imagined their gym, making it as safe
as they could, but still, according to Murphy, they didn’t comply with his mandate. They were
ceremonially summonsed twice, at last
count. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
There have been, reportedly, 100,000 small businesses
nationwide that have been wiped out, never to return. Something doesn’t feel right
when citizens are relieved of many of their
rights by political fiat. Never have Americans acquiesced so easily in the past few
months as they did in the war years -- with no war. And this is a mysterious
“open-ended” enemy as elusive as the combatants in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even when we meet all the benchmarks the state has laid out and want to hear some
positive news and get back to normal we are given yet another jeremiad.
The frustration is growing twofold: people are tired of
being pent up in their homes especially as the weather grows warmer ;
they are also skeptical of the
directives of our political leaders who
really seem clueless as to what happens next. The unpreparedness we have experienced exposes how truly inept our leaders are
especially when they blame anyone but themselves for disastrous results like what was going on
in nursing homes in New Jersey and New
York. Hey, anybody can be a leader when
there aren’t any problems ; the real leader steps up in a crisis and takes
responsibility for the outcomes of his or her policies.
Perhaps ,it is Mr.
Politi who should read up on how democracy works. It’s government by the
people, not decree by our elected leaders. If we can go to the supermarket,
Home Depot, Walmart wearing protective gear, why not the gym?
