EDITORIAL: Make responsible choices

Published 5:40 pm Monday, May 4, 2020

Here and there, businesses are reopening following Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to lift the shelter-in-place order and allow some establishments to do so. 

That’s great news that these businesses can now make that choice. We urge them to do so responsibly and we urge customers to act responsibly as well.

We support businesses in our community. We want to see businesses reopen and return to normal business hours as much as anyone else. We want to be able to go back to work in our regular offices. We want to be able to shop at our favorite stores, eat inside our favorite restaurants and enjoy our favorite services.

We urge readers to support local businesses as safely as possible.

But the governor can’t order businesses to reopen before we’ve seen the number of COVID-19 cases plateau, let alone, decrease. He can merely say they are allowed to reopen if they choose. 

He can’t make shoppers return to their favorite spots while people continue to die from the coronavirus. 

We understand it’s a tough choice: going out vs. staying inside; to have or have not; illness vs. employment; life vs. livelihood.

But it is a choice.

The governor’s decision represents a choice. Not a mandate.

Go to the grocery store and you already see people making choices. 

Many people choose to wear a mask. Sadly, it seems, many more choose not to wear a mask. What most people don’t seem to realize the choice to wear a mask is a choice to protect others – the choice of putting others before self. The mask is designed to protect others more than the wearer.

Inside that same grocery store, people choose to abide by social distancing of six feet or more by waiting for others to complete their shopping before entering an aisle. Others choose to enter the aisle anyway and reach around the person who was there first.

Choices.

That’s what the governor’s order really means. The choice to reopen. The choice to wait a while longer. The choice to go now. The choice to wait a while longer.

We urge businesses and people to make the most responsible choices they can. The choices we make now could keep ourselves and others healthy. The choices we make today could save lives in the days to come.