We had been feeling pretty good about the manner in which most of the area’s citizens have been following both mandates from the governor’s office and requests from the health care professionals on the local, state and national level.

Until now most people haven’t reached the anger level that declares all of the decisions as being political, but that has certainly started and the tens of thousands who descended on Harrisburg Monday accentuate that problem. Most are accusing the Democratic leadership of being everything from incompetent to biased and politically slanted.

We aren’t big fans of this administration but they are certainly in a tough spot to try to please anyone. Average employees are losing jobs due to the shelter-in-place because the employers which they worked for are losing their businesses. You can’t just open and close businesses and then restart them because of government mandates and expect everything will fall in place.

Apparently the Wolf administration is being given strong enough warnings about COVID-19 to merit risking such calamities within private business in the state. That can’t be an easy decision.

On the other hand they have caved in to some special interests, including the state, with the decision to open liquor stores even if only drive-up. That can be seen as nothing more than trying to fix the revenue problems for state government.

We are also aware that some places not on the essential lists are continuing to operate, including a local motocross track that was quite busy over the weekend and Country Club Golf Courses in Mercer, Lawrence and Allegheny Counties. We have not found any golf courses, public or private, in Butler County open for play of any sort.

Butler County is either better informed or listens better. It would seem enforcement of the governor’s mandates are spotty at best. We would actually agree that all law enforcement groups would have more important things to do than be checking on golf courses and racing tracks, but the professionals or owners in charge should be more responsible whether they like mandates or not.

Trying to use our crystal ball and predict what the governor or Punxsutawney Phil have in mind for early May, we think that will be when they loosen the knots that are binding small business and the economy.

Will that be in time to save the ones struggling the most? Will we lose long-established businesses that have helped build Butler County? We certainly hope not, but unless the Congress decides to write some even bigger checks to bail them out, it will happen.

Where will that money come from? Let’s hope there are still some leaves left on the money tree.