Editor:

It is time to open businesses in Rio Rancho with the nationwide virus recommendations in place for the protection of workers and patrons.

Here are several considerations to support opening up all businesses:

  • New Mexico in general is not a hotbed of virus cases.
  • The doctors from the federal task force have noted that with the summer temperatures and UV light, the virus lives only seconds to a few minutes.
  • Our hospitals are not being overrun with virus cases.
  • New York Gov. Cuomo noted on one of his press conferences that 66 percent of his cases came from home-bound shut-ins, (effectively everybody was under quarantine).
  • The virus affects the elderly and people with underlying conditions the most.

As this “pandemic” has progressed, the medical staff, as well as all of us, have learned what is required to survive.

Every business is essential one way or another. Each business is there to support the patrons that need that service along with the employees that need the economic and personal benefits that the business owner supplies.

Who decides which businesses should survive and die? It may be too late for some of them and may take years to recoup for the rest.

Even with the best intentions, not everything was thoroughly thought through. For instance, the truck drivers that deliver your food and toilet paper are not allowed to eat at full-service truck-stop restaurants, take showers, take their 10-hour required rest stop in rest areas (because they were closed), among other offensive requirements.

There is no such thing as 100 percent safety/guarantee for anything that any living person encounters in any and everyday activities. It is my responsibility to protect me and those around me, not the government’s to protect me from me.

This “pandemic” has put excessive power, in my opinion, into the governors’, mayors’ and law enforcement’s hands that the citizens of the United States need and must reclaim. Case in point is the salon owner in Texas who was thrown in jail (with active virus cases within the inmates) for reopening her business several days earlier than the Texas date allowed because she wanted to feed her family.

Another example is right here in our own backyard with the mayor in Grants trying to reopen his city’s businesses.

It is absolutely essential that all businesses open up as soon as possible (with the recommended social distancing and other safety practices in place) to get our economy and our personal wellbeing back on track as a nation before it is too late.

Richard Dooley

Rio Rancho