Calling People “Non-Essential” Latest Insult From Government

By labeling many private sector workers as “non-essential” during the COVID-19 crisis, government again needlessly insults regular Americans. Affixing the word “non-essential” to a human being is anti-life elitism. The message: “We’re from the government and know better than you. We enlightened ones understand, but you the great unwashed do not.”

These mostly Democrat governors in their executive orders are stealing people’s dignity and the right to assemble and engage in commerce. In truth, nearly every business and government agency in the United States was designated “essential,” and allowed to operate. However, businesses involved in amusements and certain retail operations were declared “non-essential” and forced to close. That the overwhelming number of businesses were allowed to open despite the COVID-19 contagion risk creates a double-standard for those engaged in leisure activities. Classifying someone trying to make a living as “non-essential” represents a sick ideology and hurts people’s spiritual and mental well-being. Every worker is “essential” to somebody, particularly when it comes to supporting their families. There are now more than 20 million Americans who have lost their jobs in the last four weeks. It’s totalitarian for the government to decide what is essential and who is not. The government belongs to We The People, and not the other way around. Ground Zero for “non-essential” workers, ironically, is the government itself. By definition, there ought to be no “non-essential” workers in government because taxpayers pay those salaries. In our consumer culture, leisure activities and amusements are essential to those who find them essential. For example, as a former Pittsburgher, remove football and the Steelers from Pittsburgh and it’s not the same place. The Steelers are the singular unifying feature of life there. If you don’t think the Steelers are “essential” to Pittsburgh, you haven’t lived there.

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Besides waging war, government rarely competes with the private sector in terms of quality. Private schools and hospitals uniformly function better than public ones. One trip to any state department of motor vehicles ought to disavow any sane person of wanting the federal government to take over health care in United States. The massive shutdown of the economy to combat COVID-19 is now being used by the Left to “re-envision” the United States, particularly taking the opportunity to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism. One person on Twitter posted that re-opening the country and free enterprise is a “death cult.” It’s a small leap from being “non-essential” to becoming “obsolete.” How pernicious this thinking is can be found in random internet searches. From a Wiki User in 2013, “Non-essential workers are those employees that require little or no training and are in positions that almost any able bodied person could fulfill.” Also from Wiki User in 2014, “The U.S. government makes a distinction between essential and non-essential workers. The U.S. government cannot operate without essential workers like Congressmen and key- (office) holders. Non-essentialworkers are those that do nothing directly affecting the government's operations.”

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These are anti-American ideas and they cannot be allowed to triumph during the hysterical government response to COVID-19. It has been a month since Governor Andrew Cuomo ruled who is non-essential in New York and ordered workers to work from home and to remain indoors as much as possible to slow the spread of COVID-19. Here is who Cuomo declared essential employees, those working in:

• Health care operations, including research and laboratory services.
• Infrastructure, including utilities.
• Telecommunications.
• Airports and transportation.
• Manufacturing of food and pharmaceuticals.
• Grocery stores and pharmacies.
• Trash collection.
• Mail and shipping services.
• News media.
• Banks and related financial institutions.
• Providers of basic necessities to economically disadvantaged populations.
• Construction.
• Vendors to services necessary to maintain safety.
• Sanitation and essential operations in residences and most businesses.
• Vendors that provide essential services or products in logistics and technology.
• Child care and services needed to ensure the continuing operation of government.
• Additional guidance posted by the state added services such as laundromats and animal-care clinics.

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That’s nearly everybody, so why differentiate between essential and non-essential? Which businesses did Cuomo declare non-essential? Those that people frequent for pleasure, like gyms, bars, restaurants, movie theaters, museums, sporting events and concert halls. The All-Powerful Cuomo said his rationale to close these businesses was that they are hubs of social interaction, making them a higher risk for spreading COVID-19 among the population. In reality, these amusement businesses could have established their own safety guidelines in conjunction with reasonable government standards, which are in short supply. Amusements are essential to the American Way of Life, but we all like different things. Some like Broadway, some Hip Hop. Some baseball; some rodeo. Some read the Bible and want to go to church; others like drinking in a bar and having a good time. Calling Americans “non-essential,” is derogatory and uncalled for, akin to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment and Obama’s disdain for those who “bitterly cling to their religion and guns.” All hard-working Americans are essential; there is a word for the Left’s labeling people non-essential: heinous.