Key West Lou / DOUBT I AM MAKING ANY FRIENDS

Key West bar owners have asked the City Commission to allow bar seating.

Pure insanity! Absolutely NO!

The only way coronavirus is going to be defeated is to follow the rules to keep the numbers down till a vaccine is available. Does that mean bar seating has to wait forever. No. However, till there are next to no new cases in the Key West area.

This move for bar seating is by bar and strip club owners.

The problem is a U.S. one. Americans don’t want to give up pleasures such as bar seating. We are a selfish society. Other countries did not mind. And most have basically resolved the virus problem. To a point where manageable.

Take New Zealand for example. Killed the problem! Went 3 1/2 months without any new cases. Then 4 in one day. The next day the number up to 17.

New Zealand immediately opened quarantine camps. Not only does the afflicted person go into the camp, his personal family also. Harsh, but makes sense. New Zealand’s President said we are not going back.

The bar owners had 2 other nonsensical requests.

The tourism council be asked to launch an advertising campaign targeting visitors who can reach Key West in a day’s drive. That would include as far north as North Carolina.

In addition, the bar owners want local residents to welcome returning tourists with appreciation and hospitality, rather than deriding them as contributing to the spread of coronavirus.

Make sense? To me reflects selfishness, also. The bar owners concern is money, not the health of employees, patrons and Key West residents.

Word is the City Commission favors the bar seating move and will vote approval for it at the Commission’s 9/1 meeting.

Too bad the local election has passed. Only 2 weeks ago. Those elected might not have had won had their position on the issues been known.

I voted for Mayor Johnston who was reelected decisively. I would not have had I known her position and that she would be giving in to the desires of the bar and strip club owners. There are far more residents than bar owners in Key West.

Another local move I believe should not be at this time. The School Board has decided to reopen the schools. The openings will be on a phased in approach beginning 9/8 and ending 9/14.

Consideration will be given to those whose parents or the children themselves who might not want to return. No child or teacher will be forced to return. Virtual teaching will be continued.

Universities seem to be opening for 1 or 2 weeks and then closing because of coronavirus surges. I may be crazy. However, my gut feeling is surges are going to occur in our local schools.

Why are our children being placed in danger?

There is a time for everything. This is not the time for the schools nor the bar seating problem to be addressee other than in a negative fashion.

The result of doing things wrong is sickness and perhaps death.

U.S. deaths now 180,000.

There has been a surge of new cases in the Midwest. Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

One reason South Dakota’s numbers are up is the result of the massive annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis 8/7 – 8/16.

Key West had the wisdom to close down Fantasy Fest for this year. Sturgis did not have the same gumption.

Andrew Cuomo handled the coronavirus pandemic well in New York State. He got it beat. Infection numbers are now under 1. Something like .06.

He is a hard ass. Not afraid to do what has to be done.

He is dealing with the college/university problem at the moment. He has warned that colleges and universities in New York State will have to stop in-person classes and switch to remote learning temporarily if coronavirus cases rise above 100 or a number equal to 5 percent of their on-campus population of students and faculty.

Cuomo said he refuses to return to where New York once was.

A leader! An unafraid politician!

Unemployed numbers keep going up.

One million more Americans filed jobless claims this past week.

Last week represented the 22nd out of 23 weeks that jobless claims have reached or exceeded one million.

Experts believe the worst is yet to come. Many believe September will find an upsurge in those not being able to make mortgage payments. Additionally, the food problem will increase. Food scarcity already at elevated levels.

Key West heat yesterday was where it is supposed to be this time of the year. I had to go to the doctor’s. Opened the front door to leave. The blast of hot air was horrible. The humidity extremely heavy.

Since I am self-quarantined, this was the first time I really experienced such humidity this summer.

United Airlines announced it is cutting 2,850 pilots this year. Amounts to a 21 percent reduction in United pilot positions.

This day in 1963 a significant one in the civil rights movement. It was on such day that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his ” I Have a Dream” speech before 200,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The speech was delivered as part of the March on Washington.

Several months ago, I wrote an article on sex trafficking in the United States. Interestingly, most of the girls involved are residents of the U.S. Very few from foreign countries.

In Metro Atlanta alone, each month 300 young girls are lured into sex trafficking.

This past week, 39 missing children ages 3 – 17 were rescued. Fifteen had been into sex trafficking. The 39 missing had been missing anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.

Sex trafficking is extensive in the U.S. Every 40 seconds a child is abducted. One sixth of those abducted will become sex trafficking victims.

My concern for May Johnston continues to grow. She is a damsel around town. Supposedly in love with Ernesto who works out of town.

Me thinks she might be cheating.

May makes reference almost daily that she takes a “car” here or there. I thought it was a motor vehicle.

Not so. This morning’s Key West Citizen ran a photo of a “car” May might have been using. A long mule drawn cart.

Enjoy your day!

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